Kenneth Napoka has pled guilty to strangling his family member with his hands and to attempting to sexually assault her while she was intoxicated.
The 36-year-old Tuluksak man was arrested in September, and pled guilty Wednesday at the Bethel courthouse. He was charged with two class A misdemeanors, which is a reduced plea from the original class C felony charges against him. He will serve three months, and will be on probation for three years with a 14-month suspended sentence.
Robert Schiesser, the attorney representing the victim, called Napoka's sentence fair, saying that it was a “C felony type resolution in misdemeanor clothing,” By that he meant that the suspended sentence Napoka received with a class A misdemeanor will turn out to be just four months shy of the sentence Napoka would have received had he been charged with a C felony.
Schiesser said the resolution was appropriate to what the state could prove, since the victim could not provide much information due to being inebriated at the time of the event. There were several eyewitnesses, but they were, in Sheisser's words, “Essentially trying to divert their eyes from what was happening.”
Napoka is required to register as a sex offender for 15 years.
