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Long Sentence After Kodiak Trial for Assailant |
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Monday, 26 November 2012 |
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A 31-year-old man has received a lengthy prison sentence for a sexual assault four years ago in False Pass, wrapping up a legal saga that involved two jury trials.
The attack occurred in 2008, while Jason Downard was working as a commercial fisherman. He was initially charged with sexual assault in the first degree, assault in the second degree, and attempted sexual assault. The woman sustained multiple injuries, and there was evidence she had been strangled.
The case was tried in Unalaska in 2010. The jury found Downard guilty of beating the woman, but acquitted him of attempted sexual assault. They also returned a split verdict on the most serious count: whether he had committed rape. Because the jury was hung and because there were also concerns juror conduct, the case was retried in Kodiak last fall.
Assistant District Attorney Jason Gist prosecuted the case.
He says that because the state is trying to curb violence against women,
retrying this case was a special priority for them.
-- [false
pass 1 9sec Despite the high cost of flying witness and
putting witnesses up in hotels, it’s something that we take very
seriously>>]
While rural cases can be challenging and
resource-intensive, Gist says the remote location was actually one of
the reasons why the state wanted to retry the case.
-- [false
pass 2 20sec, In looking at a case like this, where you
have such a violent attack out in a rural community -- those are the
types of things that our office and the administration is sort of
focusing on.>>]
At the retrial, the Kodiak jury once
again found Downard guilty of assault, and this time he was convicted of
the rape charge as well. He was sentenced last week. Because of what
the judge said was the brutality of the attack and because Downard
already had more than a dozen prior convictions, he was sentenced to 56
years in prison. It will be 29 years before he’s eligible for parole.
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