Wasilla man gets five years for shooting incident

PALMER -- A Wasilla man who fired shots at a home and then shot at a pursuing car in October 2000 was sentenced recently to five years in prison and seven years of probation.

Jason S. Freeland, 23, in an agreement with the state, pleaded no contest to three counts of third-degree assault and one count of second-degree misconduct involving a weapon. A charge of first-degree attempted murder was dropped.

Palmer Superior Court Judge Eric Smith, on Nov. 9, sentenced Freeland to seven years, with four suspended, on the weapons charge and two years, running concurrently, for each of the three assault counts.

Attorney Larry Wiggins asked Smith to sentence Freeland to two to three years in jail. But because Freeland had seven misdemeanor convictions between March 1997 and January 2000, Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak asked for at least a five-year sentence.

"This is a case where he discharged the gun not only once, but twice, inside a house and then once again from a car," Kalytiak said. "Given his age, he's got a lot of convictions already."

Alaska State Troopers said Freeland was drunk Oct. 21, 2000, when he was asked to leave the home of a 21-year-old man on Warbaby Street, near Palmer-Fishhook Road, after brandishing a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

Freeland reportedly became angry and, after leaving the residence, fired about three rounds at the home. Troopers said one round pierced the front door and another went through a living-room window.

He then fled the Palmer-area home with a 17-year-old girl, who later told troopers she drove after convincing Freeland he was too drunk to drive safely.

Troopers said Freeland then instructed the teen-ager to return to the residence, where he fired several more rounds at the home.

Meanwhile, the 21-year-old man who lived in the dwelling contacted troopers and told his father someone was firing at him. The man's father arrived in the area and began to follow Freeland and the girl, contacting troopers on his cell phone while he followed them, according to court documents.

The man's father told troopers he pursued Freeland's vehicle until it turned around in the road and started coming toward him. He told troopers that as the vehicle passed him, one of the occupants began to fire a gun at him, charging documents stated.

The man said he continued to follow Freeland, and, as he did, several more shots were fired.

Responding law enforcement officers were able to overtake Freeland's vehicle as it pulled into the driveway of a home on Woodruff Drive, near Wasilla-Fishhook Road. Freeland then fled into the heavily wooded area, troopers said.

With a K-9 unit and a thermal-imaging device, troopers and Wasilla police officers searched the woods for Freeland. The suspect apparently made his way back to Wasilla-Fishhook Road, where he was captured on the road following a foot chase, according to troopers.

Freeland is also facing a new criminal assault charge for allegedly attacking a fellow inmate at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility in June.

He is accused of punching the man in the head, then inviting him into a cell to fight. According to charging documents, the man required 16 stitches to his head after the alleged attack.

In light of Freeland's recent sentencing, Kalytiak said he will need to evaluate whether it is a wise use of resources to pursue this latest charge against Freeland.