Anchorage Daily News

FAIRBANKS -- A Delta Junction man was sent to prison for what is highly likely to be the rest of his life for shooting to death the man who was his third-party custodian.

John C. Davis, 65, killed his best friend, 34-year-old Flint Wolff of North Pole, and wounded Wolff's 70-year-old mother, Margaret, to avoid going back to prison, according to authorities.

Flint Wolff, a gold miner and school bus driver, was Davis' third-party custodian while Davis awaited trial on possession of child pornography charges.

Margaret Wolff said that her son thought his friend was innocent but had a change of heart shortly before being shot.

"I don't think Flint planned to have him in his custody anymore," said Wolff, who made a full recovery after Davis shot her in the arm.

Davis was convicted of murder and attempted murder. Superior Court Judge Douglas L. Blankenship on Tuesday sentenced him to 131 years in prison. He won't be eligible for parole until he is 106.

Davis was also shot once in the chest when a witness returned gunfire during the altercation in the Wolff household on Feb. 25, 2007.

Davis' attorney said in court that his client cannot remember the confrontation and is undergoing psychiatric treatment, court documents said.

Davis told the judge that Wolff was his best friend, the greatest guy he ever knew and that he misses him, documents said.

Wolff spent summers at his family's gold mine in Boundary and winters in North Pole driving a school bus, his mother said. He dreamed of someday raising a family.

The Wolff family is struggling to hold onto its gold mine since Flint's death, Margaret Wolff said.

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