Witnesses testify for defense in Talkeetna shooting

PALMER — Did Jeremy Nelson really confess to shooting Bob Carey and his wife Verna Carey in January 2011? Did he even do it?

Nelson’s attorney, Jeff Bradley, began presenting his case to a jury Monday. Part of his case included testimony from Laura Carey, Bob Carey’s daughter.

Laura Carey said there were a couple places where witnesses told her one thing and said another in court.

For instance, her mother, Verna Carey, said in the hospital the morning after she’d been shot that she’d been milking the goats that day and was standing between the shooter and her husband when her husband was killed.

For her part, Verna Carey testified she never told Laura Carey she was standing between the gunman and her husband.

Later, Laura Carey testified, she went to the cabin and didn’t see any goat’s milk.

“She was asking the troopers if someone could milk the goats,” Laura Carey recalled.

Another witness named Ross Nold, Laura Carey testified, told the court he’d spent that evening at a neighbor’s house, but told her he’d been in his own house.

Bradley tried to present testimony from Laura Carey saying she had told troopers to investigate other people living in the area, not just Jeremy Nelson, but District Attorney Roman Kalytiak objected, saying that testimony constituted Laura Carey’s opinion as to who was involved and she was not an expert and therefore not allowed to express an opinion in court.

“She has formed some very strong personal opinions about this case,” Kalytiak said, opinions involving multiple conspirators.

For his part, Bradley argued that the important thing wasn’t what her theory is, but that Laura Carey gave Alaska State Troopers leads to follow and they did not.

Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler sided with Kalytiak in ruling that evidence inadmissible — there was just too much speculation.

Also testifying Monday was Rudy Gestl, on whose property Nelson was found hiding the night of the shooting. Gestl said that he spent seven hours in the back of a patrol car talking off and on with a trooper.

Bradley asked Gestl about how his story had changed, how he didn’t tell troopers that Nelson had confessed to him that he’d shot the Careys until months after the shooting.

“What do you understand your job to be as a witness, Mr. Gestl?” Bradley asked.

“To tell the truth,” Gestl answered.

Bradley asked Gestl about a sheaf of papers he’d been reviewing prior to testifying. The papers were summaries of what he’d said to troopers before. Did Gestl need, Bradley asked, to refer to summaries of things he’d said before in order to tell the truth?

“Yes, I do need a little help with my memory,” Gestl said.

Kalytiak said that recordings of conversations between Gestl and Nelson while Nelson was in jail awaiting trial show that Nelson wanted Gestl to lie to troopers, tell them Nelson had been at Gestl’s place earlier than he had been.

“I didn’t mean to get you involved, but I needed you as an alibi,” Kalytiak said, quoting Nelson on the recordings.

Gestl said he didn’t think Nelson used the word “alibi,” and he didn’t lie to troopers.

“It wouldn’t have worked. All it would have done was get me in trouble,” Gestl testified.

Trooper Vance Peronto, who held Gestl in the backseat of his patrol car for hours that night, said that from time to time Gestl would talk to him. Bradley said that what Gestl told the trooper was vague, non-committal.

“He managed to avoid, at least for the night, committing himself to a particular set of facts,” Bradley said, asking if the trooper agreed or disagreed.

“I don’t know if I would say that,” Peronto said.

Some of the things Gestl said, Peronto testified, were clearly meant to separate himself from what Nelson did.

“He would have stopped Nelson if he could have,” Peronto recalled as the gist of Gestl’s thoughts on the shooting.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.