A Kotlik man has been sentenced to serve six years in prison after pleading guilty to criminally negligent homicide for shooting a man in the lower Yukon village in 2021.
According to a sentencing document filed in Bethel Superior Court, Kotlik resident Ralph John Waska shot 49-year-old Yago Pitka twice with a shotgun in mid-April 2021.
The document alleges that Waska and Pitka began drinking alcohol on the afternoon of April 14 at Waska’s home, continued drinking at Pitka’s home, and then returned to Waska’s home that evening.
According to the document, Waska told authorities he was physically attacked in his home by Pitka, and that when Pitka refused to leave he grabbed his shotgun and shot Pitka.
The prosecution dismissed two charges of second-degree murder as part of a partial plea agreement, but was ultimately granted the maximum sentence under the plea agreement due to what it said was a need to protect the community of Kotlik and Waska’s multiple past felony convictions.
On May 24, Bethel Superior Court judge Nathaniel Peters sentenced Waska to a total sentence of nine years with three years suspended.
