A Kenai jury acquitted a man on murder charges last week.
Thirty-year-old Nathan Penrod, of Soldotna, was found not guilty on all seven charges he faced after fatally shooting his roommate, Zechariah Bowman, in 2022. In all, Penrod faced one charge of first-degree murder, two charges of second-degree murder, two charges of third-degree assault, one charge of tampering with physical evidence and one charge of manslaughter.
Friday’s verdict capped a 23-day trial in which state prosecutors had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Penrod both intended to kill Bowman and was not acting in self defense. Penrod’s lawyers argued he had acted in self-defense.
Andy Pevehouse is Penrod’s attorney. He says Penrod’s case was the first time he’d represented a defendant facing murder charges at trial. When jurors returned the verdict, he says Penrod was emotional.
“He cried,” Pevehouse said. “I almost cried. It was just relief. Just relief.”
According to charging documents, Penrod called 9-1-1 and said he shot his roommate after his roommate threatened to kill him. Soldotna’s 9-1-1 dispatch center had received a dropped call from the location of the shooting earlier that day. Investigators later learned the dropped call had been made by Penrod’s ex-fiancee, who was in the house at the time of shooting. The ex-fiancee said Penrod threatened to kill her and pointed the gun at her. She ran out of the house and was taken in by a neighbor, who called 9-1-1.
At trial, prosecutors argued Penrod “hunted” Bowman and his ex-fiancee in the hours leading up to the shooting. They introduced records of Penrod’s internet browsing history that included searches for how to silence a gunshot shortly before arriving at the house and killing Bowman.
Prosecutors also accused Penrod of planting a revolver at the crime scene to make it look like he’d acted in self-defense. They called in forensic scientists to argue the revolver was set in a pool of blood as evidence by flow patterns. Jurors were able to see the revolver placed on a flat surface and observe the space inbetween.
During closing arguments, Justin Works, with the Kenai District Attorney’s office, reiterated the state’s position that Bowman’s death was premeditated.
“Zach Bowman was not just killed,” Works said. “He was hunted. On the morning of March, 29, 2022, when he left that room, that was the culmination of a plan. That was the culmination of planning that took hours.”
Pevehouse’s team argued Penrod didn’t know that his ex-fiance and Bowman had started a sexual relationship when he returned home. He said Penrod reacted to Bowman saying he would kill him. He worked to discredit the reliability of testimony from the ex-fiancee and said she and Bowman went out of their way to hide their relationship from Penrod.
Pevehouse also argued crime scene investigators didn’t use all of the tools at their disposal to determine whether the side of the revolver facing up had traces of blood on it. And he says the state couldn’t prove Penrod’s internet search history was from the night before the shooting.
“What happened to Zach Bowman is a tragedy,” Pevehouse said during the defense’s closing argument. “Any death is a tragedy. I'm not here telling you Nathan Penrod is some hero. I'm not here telling you that Zach Bowman is some villain. But Nathan Penrod told you what happened that night – or that day, and the evidence fully supports what he said.”
On Thursday, Pevehouse said the case boiled down to the question of “Why?”
“There was never a dispute that Mr. Penrod shot Mr. Bowman,” he said. “That's not why he was acquitted. This wasn't a who-done-it. It was just, why did this shooting happen?”
He says verdicts are “always a surprise,” but that questions asked by jurors during their deliberations indicated which way they were leaning.
“Reading the facial expressions of jurors is typically like reading tea leaves,” he said. “It's very hard to predict what a jury is thinking.”
On Thursday, Works – with the DA’s office – asked to answer questions about the verdict via email. In a statement on behalf of the State of Alaska, he said they respect the jury’s verdict.
“The State believes we put on a very strong case supported by the evidence,” he said. “But ultimately, the State was required to meet two extremely high burdens in this case.”
Works said that verdict indicates jurors unanimously agreed that the state failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Penrod intentionally killed Bowman. That’s on top of failing to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that Penrod had acted in self defense.
