Dec. 17—A 27-year-old Anchorage man was sentenced Friday to 85 years in prison for fatally shooting another man in an apartment near downtown seven years ago.
Investigators said Kuach Kuach shot and killed 22-year-old Devan McDonald as he rested in bed on a Sunday morning in December 2017. Kuach was convicted last year of first- and second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and misconduct involving weapons.
The shooting followed an impromptu birthday party that McDonald and his girlfriend hosted at their apartment, according to an affidavit written by Detective Ross Henikman and attached to the criminal complaint. They invited Kuach, whom they had known for a number of years, it said.
Kuach woke up in the apartment the next day and threatened to “take Devan,” the affidavit said. Just before leaving with someone who wanted to give him a ride, Kuach entered the bedroom and shot McDonald in the upper body, it said.
The document does not provide a specific motive for the shooting.
Kuach threw the gun he used on the side of the road, Assistant District Attorney Whitney Bostick wrote in a sentencing memorandum. He was arrested after a standoff with police at the apartment where he lived with his family.
At the time of the murder, Kuach was on probation for a felony weapons conviction related to a fatal car crash near Merrill Field the year before that required gunfire.
McDonald’s death was “senseless, avoidable and without any provocation, justification or mitigation,” Bostick wrote in the sentencing memorandum. She requested that Kuach be sentenced to 85 years in prison.
Craig Howard, an assistant attorney general who represented Kuach, asked the court to sentence him to 35 years in prison.
Supreme Court Judge Michael Wolverton sentenced him on Friday to 105 years, 20 of which were suspended. Kuach will be on probation for ten years after his release.
