A 28-year-old Soldotna man accused of shooting and killing a 29-year-old man Tuesday morning was arrested and charged with murder early Wednesday, Alaska State Troopers said.
Nathan Penrod shot Soldotna resident Zechariah Bowman several times with a handgun, troopers said. Bowman died of injuries to his chest and head.
Bowman sublet a room in his house to Penrod, according to court documents filed in Soldotna on Wednesday.
Penrod’s ex-fiancee spent Monday night with Bowman at the house before the shooting occurred, the 27-year-old woman told investigators.
The woman told troopers that Bowman left the room in the morning to see if Penrod was up, and a few seconds later she heard him say either “Nate, stop!” or “Nate, no!”, according to a sworn affidavit filed by troopers investigator Samuel Webber. She told troopers she then heard three gunshots and what sounded like Penrod speaking angrily.
The woman ran out of the bedroom and saw Bowman on the floor holding his left neck and shoulder, the affidavit states. She said she saw Penrod holding a black handgun.
He turned the gun on her and “said something to the effect of, ‘you’re sleeping with him?’ ” Webber wrote. The woman said Penrod threatened to kill Bowman if she called police, then threw her phone after she dialed 911.
The woman said she tried to get the gun away from Penrod but couldn’t and he pointed it at her again, the affidavit states.
She ran out of the room and held the door shut against him, then screamed in the hope the open 911 line would pick up her voice, it says. Then she ran from the house through brush on snow- and ice-covered ground and called 911 again from a neighbor’s house.
Penrod called 911 a few minutes later to say he just shot his neighbor “after his neighbor threatened to kill him,” the affidavit states. He said his ex-fiancee tried to take his gun, so he left.
Penrod was located at his father’s house, a black handgun visible on the front seat of his pickup, according to the affidavit. He declined to make any statements without a lawyer present, the affidavit said.
The weapon and rounds inside matched four spent shell casings on the floor near Bowman’s body, the document states. Troopers later found a loaded .22 caliber revolver on the floor near Bowman’s body, with the hammer cocked but no rounds fired.
They returned to Penrod’s father’s house late Tuesday night and arrested him on charges of first-degree murder and third-degree assault without incident.
He remained jailed at Wildwood Pretrial Facility on Wednesday afternoon.