Huslia Man Pleads Guilty to Shooting Toward Tourists on Koyukuk River

Under an agreement, David F. Vent, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree assault, a felony.

Tools

By Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

Story Created: Jul 12, 2011 at 9:53 AM AKDT

Story Updated: Jul 12, 2011 at 9:53 AM AKDT

FAIRBANKS — A Huslia man pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to shooting toward tourists on the Koyukuk River.

Under an agreement, David F. Vent, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree assault, a felony. He was sentenced to serve 118 days in jail. He received credit for time served since his April arrest, which will allow him to return home Wednesday.

During five years of probation, he must not drink alcohol and must consent to blood tests and searches of his property for alcohol. Vent has a previous 2002 conviction that also involved guns and alcohol.

At Monday’s sentencing, Superior Court judge Douglas Blankenship strongly encouraged Vent to stay away from alcohol.

“You’ll need to do that for your benefit and for the benefit of others,” he said. “When you have firearms and alcohol, it’s a prescription for disaster.”

On April 24, Vent fired five shots over the heads of a group of people on the bank of the Koyukuk River while yelling at them to get off his property, according to the case against him.

The four victims were tourists and a guide who had brought them up the river. They were taking pictures of each other and were about 300 feet from Vent when they started hearing gunshots. No one was injured.

Asked outside the courtroom if the people were in fact on his property, Vent declined to comment at the advice of his attorney, Michael Biderman.

You have indicated this comment should be removed.

Close

The comment has been submitted for review. Thank you .

mikey372002 said on Tuesday, Jul 12 at 11:51 AM

well when a nut is drinking, everything is his property. even the women and wife's these looser beat up and assualt

70569978
Inappropriate? Alert Us!

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

KTVA CBS 11 | Anchorage, Alaska News and Weather and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.
This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.