Teen found guilty in death of Oso hiker

Published 10:18 pm Tuesday, June 2, 2009

MOUNT VERNON — A judge in Mount Vernon says the teen who killed a Sauk Mountain hiker he mistook for a bear is guilty of second-degree manslaughter with a firearm.

The Skagit Valley Herald reports Superior Court Judge Susan Cook acquitted the boy Tuesday of first-degree manslaughter, finding he didn’t act recklessly. But she says firing at an outline in the fog from 150 yards away wasn’t a hunting accident.

The lawyer for the 15-year-old boy from Concrete had argued the shooting was a tragic accident. The Skagit County prosecutor had asked for a first-degree manslaughter conviction.

The hiker, 54-year-old Pamela Almli of Oso, was killed Aug. 2 on a hiking trail as the boy, then 14, was hunting with his older brother who also thought he saw a bear.