FAIRBANKS \u2014 Nathanial Kangas reacted impulsively when he shot and killed two Alaska State Troopers at his home in the village of Tanana, his attorney told jurors at Kangas\u2019 murder trial Friday.<\/p>\n
Defense attorney Greg Parvin in closing arguments Friday asked jurors to consider the state of mind of Kangas on May 1, 2014, and convict him of manslaughter, not murder, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http:\/\/bit.ly\/1TCu5yd) reported.<\/p>\n
Kangas was a \u201cgood, well-mannered\u201d young man who reacted impulsively to \u201cwhat he perceived as a lethal threat to his father,\u201d Parvin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was reacting to a crisis situation in his mind,\u201d Parvin said.<\/p>\n
Kangas, 22, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder, assault and evidence tampering in the deaths of Trooper Sgt. Scott Johnson and Trooper Gabe Rich.<\/p>\n
They had traveled to Tanana to arrest Kangas\u2019 father, Arvid Kangas, who was suspected of threatening Tanana\u2019s village public safety officer with a gun.<\/p>\n
During a struggle to arrest Arvid Kangas, he and the officers tumbled into Kangas\u2019 home. Investigators said Nathanial Kangas fired seven rifle shots, killing the officers at close range.<\/p>\n
Parvin told jurors that Nathanial was a victim of his father\u2019s indoctrination.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a kid whose father saturated him in vitriol and hate,\u201d Parvin said. \u201cHe did not intend to cause their death. The evidence in this case shows it\u2019s manslaughter.\u201d<\/p>\n
District Attorney Greggory Olson told jurors the state had proved Nathanial meant to kill the troopers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis shots were accurate and they were precision. Remember where his father was? His father didn\u2019t get shot,\u201d Olson said.<\/p>\n
Kangas could not use the excuse of defending someone to justify killing the officers, Olson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe court has instructed you that defense of others is not applicable. If he killed those two troopers to defend his father, that\u2019s intentional,\u201d Olson said.<\/p>\n
Jurors heard audio from recorders worn by both officers. The elder Kangas was recorded arguing with troopers and telling them they would have to kill him if they want to arrest him.<\/p>\n
The sound clips recorded seven shots fired, followed by distressed howls from Nathanial. They also recorded the sounds of the officers\u2019 service pistols removed from their holsters and rounds chambered in what investigators said was an attempt to make it appear that Johnson and Rich had drawn their weapons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FAIRBANKS \u2014 Nathanial Kangas reacted impulsively when he shot and killed two Alaska State Troopers at his home in the village of Tanana, his attorney told jurors at Kangas\u2019 murder trial Friday. Defense attorney Greg Parvin in closing arguments Friday asked jurors to consider the state of mind of Kangas on May 1, 2014, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-32669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32669"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=32669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}