There were two reoccurring topics in the sentencing of Ashley Nelund yesterday for shooting that happened last November in the Kenai Walmart parking lot: the recklessness of the act and community condemnation for it.
Nelund’s defense attorney Dina Cale pointed out that her client has completed 24 classes while in custody relating to anger management and drug relapse prevention. Kenai district attorney Scott Leaders reminded the court that Nelund had not only shot multiple times at a car during a dispute over money, but towards a busy public entrance of Walmart on Friday, November 1, 2013.
Kenai Superior Judge Carl Huguelet called the shooting a “reckless, reckless, reckless” act and agreed with Leaders that the case easily could have been a homicide had someone been killed by one of those three shots fired.
Huguelet said her sentence should reflect the recklessness of the act along with the community condemnation that had been demonstrated. He also remarked that at her young age she does have time for rehabilitation saying, “It’s up to you, it’s no one else’s fault, it’s not your family’s fault, it’s not your boyfriend’s fault, it’s not your friends’ fault. If you don’t straighten out it’s your fault.”
Nelund was sentenced to 7 years with 3.5 suspended for the shooting case as well as an unrelated drug trafficking case and 5 years probation on each.