Relief denied in 2017 case

SANDPOINT — Post-conviction relief is being denied for a Bonner County man serving a 10-year prison term for accidentally killing one pedestrian and seriously injuring another in 2017.

Peter Franklin Goullette was charged with vehicular manslaughter after hitting Katherine Stelzer with his pickup truck on McGhee Road. Zualita Updike, Stelzer’s coworker at Litehouse Foods, was injured in the collision.

Goullette entered an Alford plea to the felony manslaughter charge and was sentenced to a fixed 10-year term by 1st District Judge Barbara Buchanan in 2018.

Goullette petitioned the court for post-conviction relief, arguing that the state could not sustain felony prosecution of the manslaughter charge. He further argued that he received ineffective assistance from counsel because the attorney did not file the post-conviction petition and failed to argue for a lesser sentence.

Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall moved to dismiss the petition because Goullette did not file an appeal. The state also argued there was insufficient grounds demonstrating that Goullette received poor counsel.

Buchanan granted the state’s motion to dismiss on Oct. 25, court records show. She held that the lack of an appeal meant that he forfeited his claims and could not raise them in a post-conviction proceeding. Buchanan also ruled that Goullette’s argument that the state could not sustain the burden of a felony prosecution was “merely conclusory,” according to court documents.

As to the ineffective assistance claim, Buchanan said that even if the facts were construed in Goullette’s favor, they did not raise a material issue of fact whether his attorney should have appealed or argued for a lesser sentence.

“For all these reasons, the court finds that summary disposition and dismissal of Mr. Goullette’s petition for post-conviction relief is appropriate because the court can conclude, as a matter of law, that Mr. Goullette is not entitled to the relief he has requested,” Buchanan said in an eight-page written ruling.

Goullette, 26, is serving his sentence at the Idaho State Correctional Center in Kuna, according to the Idaho Department of Correction. He is eligible for parole in 2028.

Goullette is also serving concurrent sentences in an unrelated weapon possession case and a felony assault and witness intimidation case.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.