A 31-year-old man who shot his mother in August 2012 in his Midtown apartment was sentenced Friday in Anchorage Superior Court to 10 years in jail.
Paino Alvarez-Perdomo fired twice and hit his mother, Altagracia Guillen, once. She survived the wound to her abdomen. Alvarez-Perdomo surrendered to police at the apartment and was charged with first-degree assault and third-degree weapons misconduct.
The state decided not to pursue an attempted-murder charge, said Assistant Attorney General Adam Alexander.
The assault charge carried a presumptive range of 10 to 14 years, while the range for being a felon in possession of a firearm was another two to four years behind bars. Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton sentenced Alvarez-Perdomo to a composite sentence of 16 years, with six suspended.
The significant sentence is the result of the defendant's shocking behavior, Alexander said.
"Something the court focused on was the fact that there wasn't any apparent motive," he said. "That was disturbing and taken into account during his sentencing."
Guillen, the mother, told officers her son called her and asked that she stop by the apartment the day of the shooting. When she arrived, Alvarez-Perdomo opened the door and asked her to come inside. Guillen told police she saw something behind his back, in his waistband, and could tell something was "not right," according to the charging document.
"(He) then pulled out a revolver from behind his back and shot Ms. Guillen in the abdomen," the charges say.
There was evidence presented at trial that Alvarez-Perdomo chased his mother down the street and fired another shot, Alexander said.
If the path of the bullet that struck Guillen's abdomen had been a millimeter or two in another direction, she'd "either be seriously injured or dead," Alexander said.
Friday's sentence follows multiple misdemeanor convictions in July 2002, when Alvarez-Perdomo was 19, that included assault, weapons misconduct, resisting arrest and making a false report.
He was also a co-defendant with his mother in the largest ever-Alaska cocaine bust, according to an Anchorage Daily News story at the time of his arrest.
In November 2002, the mother and son were among 44 defendants listed in four indictments for their roles in a massive drug-dealing ring. Federal agents seized more than 200 pounds of cocaine bound for Alaska in separate busts between 1999 and 2002, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Guillen was convicted and served prison time, while the charges against her son were dropped.