Galena man sentenced for standoff
FAIRBANKS - A Galena man was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday on charges stemming from a 10-hour armed standoff with Alaska State Troopers and police nearly a year ago.
Judge Charles Pengilly on Wednesday sentenced Larry Wholecheese to four years in prison with two suspended for a second-degree escape conviction and two years with one suspended for a third-degree assault conviction.
A jury in Nenana, where the trial was held, convicted Wholecheese of those charges in June but acquitted him on six felony charges relating to allegations that he molested a 15-year-old girl once and a foster daughter on several occasions.
Troopers and a Galena police officer responded to Wholecheese's residence on Nov. 17, 2001, shortly after the foster daughter accused him of sexual abuse. According to a criminal complaint, Wholecheese fled from the officers when they tried to arrest him, grabbed a shotgun and chambered a round. Wholecheese reportedly threatened the officers and refused to give up.
Trooper negotiators flew to Galena from Fairbanks and talked him into a peaceful surrender.
Pengilly ruled the sentence will not go into effect until Wholecheese's lawyer, Bill Satterberg, has time to appeal the convictions.