Valley man sentenced in case that involved death of a Valley teen

PALMER — Damien Peterson was sentenced to 18 years in prison with five suspended and five parole in Palmer Court on Oct. 4, for manslaughter in a case that involved the death of a Valley teen. Attorneys argued whether the most serious aggravator should be applied in this sentencing. The prosecution was originally asking for 18 years flat time, but parole and suspended time were awarded by Judge Jonathan Woodman.

The events that transpired that night are not unclear. What is unclear about what happened that night is why no one knew sooner that Frankie Woodford did not shoot himself. A group of young men that included Damien Peterson, his brother Devin, and Austin Barrett were all at a house where an adult was present but there was no supervision. Damien Peterson was manipulating a stolen Glock 10mm pistol, taking bullets out of the magazine and putting them back in. Frankie Woodford, 16 at the time, left another room of the house to join his friends because he he was getting bullied. The room he walked into was the same room Peterson was in playing with his pistol. Testimony from Barrett, one of the four charged with the murder of David Grunwald, said that Damien was pointing the gun and pulling the trigger at people.

“The reasonable inference from that is that it was done with the intent to instill fright in Frankie Woodford and instead it took Frankie’s life,” District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said.

Peterson said did not know the gun was loaded even though he had been manipulating the stolen handgun. When the gun went off, everyone ran out of the room, screaming that Frankie had shot himself. He told first responders on the scene that he did not shoot himself. Alaska State Troopers investigated the incident but found no one to charge, until Barrett told troopers about that night during the investigation for the Grunwald murder.

Peterson’s attorney, Yvette Soutiere, argued that since then, Damien has worked to better himself as a person and distance himself from his troublemaking friends. Damien stood in the courtroom Thursday to apologize to the family of the boy that he had shot and killed.

“I killed someone ma’am. I took someone’s life. It was an accident but I deserve prison time,” Soutiere quoted Peterson.

Soutiere worked to disassociate Peterson with the others of his friends currently awaiting trial. Soutiere argued that there was no underlying history of conduct of Damien’s to point to as a criminal history. However, two days after the shooting, Peterson was involved in a separate incident where he choked out another teen.

“Damien is committed to spending the rest of his life being a good man on Frankie’s behalf,” Soutiere said.

Kalytiak called Trooper Sgt. Tony Wegrzyn to give his expertise on the Glock pistol. Wegrzyn detailed the three safeties on the pistol and the power of the caliber of the bullet, more powerful than the standard issue that troopers use. Kalytiak questioned Wgrzyn about the ability for the gun to go off without having to pull the trigger, which he did not think was very likely. Soutiere questioned Wegrzyn about where one would learn these types of safety rules and precautions.

Kalytiak continued to rehash old associations between the Petersons and Barrett. Kalytiak used information from Barrett as a key piece of information, but Soutiere was not so sure and stated that Barrett had reason to fabricate.

“He was trying to be a badass in front of others and acting like a gangster and trying to intimidate young people,” Kalytiak said. “He actually left the other room because people were bullying him and then the room he came into happened to have a high person in there playing with a 10mm. The lies were flowing just like the marijuana smoke was flowing on that particular day. All involved lied about it.”

Soutiere was most upset with the connection between Damien and the defendants in the Grunwald case.

“That is prejudicial. Mr. Damien Peterson is not mentioned once in the dozens of audios and videos in the 200+ pages of police reports, none of that there is zero reason that should come in because it falsely implicates my client in something he had nothing to do with,” Soutiere said.