WASILLA -- William Robinson Jr. was 16 when he shot and killed his father, 57-year-old William "Spencer" Robinson Sr., in the Meadow Lakes home they shared in February 2013.
On Monday, the day his murder trial was slated to begin in Palmer Superior Court, the teen who contended he was trying to protect his mother and himself from his father's abusive tyranny entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.
His attorney is hopeful Robinson will serve no time.
Along with accepting the plea, a judge removed the bail conditions applied in 2012, when Robinson was freed from jail two months after the shooting. No more house arrest, ankle monitor, or constant supervision from a friend in Anchorage serving as third-party custodian.
Robinson, now 18, plans to move to the Lower 48 soon for a good job and an apartment with a friend, a trip Outside that both the judge and prosecutor agreed to.
He celebrated his first day of relative freedom in two years with a surprise visit to his mother and a reunion with his dog, a grayer and rounder black lab named Kobuk.
"I'm happy. It's a good day," he said by phone as drove with his attorney from the Valley back into Anchorage Monday afternoon. "It's a weird sensation being free."
The case began with a 3 a.m. call from Robinson's mother, Nicole Robinson, on Feb. 26, 2013. She later told investigators she and Spencer Robinson had been fighting and she was getting ready to leave the house. William Jr. told investigators he shot his "very angry" father after watching him disable the car so his mother couldn't leave.
Prosecutors charged Robinson, as an adult, with first-degree murder, saying the elder Robinson was unarmed and hadn't physically hurt anyone the day of the shooting. He was placed in solitary confinement to protect him from other inmates.
But supporters contended that Robinson killed his father in self-defense, and to protect his mother. Evidence of ongoing psychological and physical abuse was described in court documents filed last month, according to his lawyer, Marcelle McDannel, with the state Office of Public Advocacy. McDannel is also a columnist for Alaska Dispatch News.
Robinson is scheduled for sentencing in November. McDannel said she plans to ask the judge to apply mitigating factors in hopes of reducing any prison time to zero.
"I think we're all on the same page that William is not at all a dangerous person and in fact is a really smart, talented kid who has hopefully a great life ahead of him," she said. "I hope this is going to get him out of the horrific situation he was in before and let him start again."
Factors that influenced the plea bargain included Robinson's age and lack of criminal history, the suppression of his confession by Palmer Superior Court Judge Kari Kristiansen, and "evidence of domestic violence in the household" before the shooting, according to an email from Assistant District Attorney Eric Senta in Palmer.
There's no agreement as to exactly what the sentence will be, Senta said. Criminally negligent homicide, a Class B felony in Alaska, carries a minimum one-year sentence and a maximum of 10 years, though a judge can apply so-called "mitigators" for additional reductions.
McDannel said she expects Robinson's success in the coming months to speak for itself.