A jury trial began on Tuesday for the Juneau carpenter charged with felony assault after he shot a guest at his Valley home in December.

In opening statements, District Attorney David Brower said the issue wasn’t whether Kenneth Nalan, 36, shot his brother-in-law’s drinking buddy, 33-year-old John Duran, while they were drinking at Nalan’s house the night of Dec. 20. Rather, the question is why?

“This is not a question of ‘whodunit?’,” Brower told the jury. “It’s a question of ‘why-dunit?’”

A World War II paratrooper who was a Holocaust liberator and occupied the private home of Adolf Hitler after the war passed away last week, his family says.

The decorated veteran, beloved to many in Haines, Norman L. Smith, died at his home in Albion, Neb., on Dec. 21 after a 20-year battle with post-polio syndrome. He was 86.

“Norm will be remembered as a man of energy and integrity, with a sense of humor to overcome adversity in his life, particularly over polio,” his family said in a statement Tuesday.