Albert S. Valentine v. State Alaska

RABINOWITZ, Chief Justice. OPINION. Albert Valentine appeals his conviction of manslaughter for the killing of nine-year-old Billy Evenson, his half-brother. The charge arose from an incident when Valentine was baby-sitting for his four younger siblings and a friend at their apartment in Juneau. Valentine accidentally knocked over a box, and one boy found their mothers old derringer. Everyone started playing with it; Valentine aimed the pistol at the boys and pulled the trigger in jest. One of the boys told him that the gun did not work, and Valentine remembered hearing this from his mother, too. Billy then brought Valentine some ammunition, and Valentine loaded the gun; he went outside and pulled the trigger several times without results. He brought the loaded gun back inside and continued to play with it. According to Valentines testimony, he did not believe the gun was pointed toward any of the children when he squeezed the trigger and the gun fired, but Billy jumped into the line of fire. Valentine was sentenced to a four-year suspended sentence.