Homer News Staff

A former Homer resident was sentenced on March 24 to 15 years in prison, with five and a half years suspended, for assaulting a person in his home in March 2020, according to a March 24 press release from the State of Alaska Department of Law.

Between March 8 and 9, 2020, 54-year-old Julian Massey “beat, strangled and suffocated” the victim over the course of hours, the release said. Massey then drove to and wheeled the victim into South Peninsula Hospital, officials said in the release.

Massey returned home, where he had an armed standoff with Alaska State Troopers and Homer Police before finally surrendering and being taken into custody. The victim was life-flighted from Homer to Providence Hospital in Anchorage in order to be treated for injuries, according to the release.

Superior Court Judge Bride Seifert, who announced the sentencing on March 24, found that the state “proved the aggravating factors of ‘deliberate cruelty’” and that this case was among the “most serious” cases of assault in the first degree, the release said.

According to the release, Massey pleaded guilty to assault in the first degree on Nov. 8, 2022, shortly before his trial was scheduled to begin. A contested sentencing hearing was scheduled “where the state and defense would present evidence regarding aggravating and mitigating circumstances and the court would decide the length of active jail time that Massey would receive.” Judge Seifert found there to be no mitigating factors when announcing the sentence on Friday.

Massey was sentenced to nine and a half years active jail time on Friday, with five years’ probation upon release from prison.