More than a decade after the original crime took place, the Alaska Court of Appeals denied Rachelle Waterman’s appeal of her conviction in the death of her mother.
Waterman was found guilty in a 2011 retrial of criminally negligent homicide for telling two men she had been dating- that she wanted her mother dead, and then failing to warn her mother or alert authorities when she found out that the two men were, indeed, planning to kill Lauri Waterman.
The two former boyfriends, Jason Arrant of Klawock and Brian Radel of Thorne Bay, confessed to the 2004 murder, which took place outside of Craig on Prince of Wales Island.
For her role in the crime, Waterman was sentenced in July of 2011 to three years in prison.
The basis of Waterman’s appeal is that as a 16 year old she should not have been judged based on the standard for an adult.
Waterman’s attorneys argued that juveniles’ brains are not yet fully developed, which affects their judgment.
Alaska’s high court said state law stipulates that for the most serious crimes, including homicide, defendants as young as 16 years old are treated the same as adults.
