FISH TO SCHOOLS - Jerick Keith, 13, carries his rockfish taco lunch to a table at Blatchley Middle School Wednesday. The lunch was part of the Fish To Schools program, which is marking its fourteenth year of incorporating wild, local seafoods into Sitka’s school lunches. In an email, the Sitka Conservation Society, which manages the program, thanked Sitka’s fishermen as well as processors, Sitka Sound Seafoods and Seafood Producers Cooperative, for donating to the program and the Sitka School District food services team for cooking the seafood. The next Fish To Schools day for Keet Gooshí Héen Elementary, Xóots Elementary, Blatchley Middle School and Sitka High School will be January 22. (Sentinel Photo)
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Sentinel Staff Writer
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School District
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Daily Sitka Sentinel
Macasaet Convicted in 2016 Craig Murder
BY SENTINEL STAFF
A Sitka jury returned a verdict of guilty today in the first-degree murder trial of Albert Macasaet, 30. of Klawock.
Macasaet was charged in the July 31, 2016 strangulation death of his girlfriend, Judylee Guthrie, 27.
Macasaet, Guthrie and a group of friends had been drinking in the Prince of Wales Island village of Craig the evening of July 30, 2016. Early the next morning Macasaet reported to Craig Police that Guthrie was missing. Later in the day Macasaet reported to police that he had found Guthrie's body. It was located a short distance away from a Craig area trail that searchers had previously covered, but it was not easily visible from the trail, investigators said.
Albert Macasaet is handcuffed after being convicted of first degree murder in the strangulation death of his girlfriend in 2016, today in the Sitka courthouse. (Sentinel Photo)
Macasaet's trial started April 24 and the jury started deliberating Thursday afternoon following closing arguments by defense and prosecution attorneys.
Deliberations resumed this morning and at 6:45 p.m. the jury returned to report their verdict of murder in the first degree. Judge Jude Pate had given the jury the option of finding Macasaet guilty of the lesser included offense of murder in the second degree.
Macasaet did not display emotion but bowed his head slightly as the verdict was read. The judge asked each juror in turn what their finding was in the charge of murder in the first degree and each in turn said, “guilty.” Macasaet's mother, sitting directly behind him, began to sob loudly as each juror repeated the verdict. On the other side of the courtroom Guthrie's parents were also weeping and consoling each other.
Macasaet and Guthrie are the parents of two young children. The jury was told of two previous domestic violence incidents in which Macasaet had strangled Guthrie.
There were no witnesses to the murder, so the case was based on circumstantial evidence. It was complicated by what the defense said was ambiguous DNA evidence. The prosecution pointed to Macasaet's changing stories about the events of July 30 and 31, 2016. They reconstructed his whereabouts that night using the cell phone records of his numerous calls, which could be traced to either Klawock or Craig, which are served by different cell towers.
After the verdict was read Judge Pate set the sentencing for the week of September 9 in Klawock.
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20 YEARS AGO
December 2004
Photo caption: Dave Dapcevich receives the Girl Scouts Business Donor of the Year plaque from Tongass Alaska Girl Scouts members April Jensen and Kay McCarty. Dapcevich Accounting donates money collected in a client project to youth programs.
50 YEARS AGO
December 1974
Sitka High School has announced the names of students who made 4.00 grade point averages for the quarter: seniors Mary Christoffel, Louise Dennard, Roger Hames, Helen Hannigan, Roxanne McGraw, Peter Munro, Teresa Redston, Christy Roth, Pam Stromme, Gayle Swain and Jack Turner.
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