The slender man in the immaculately pressed dress shirt and slacks sat in the witness stand and said he had nothing to hide.

Yes, he was a peeping Tom.

Yes, he used his cell phone to videotape women in various states of undress.

But 31-year-old Jeremy Peter Goulet pleaded with jurors to believe him: He did not try to murder the boyfriend of a 22-year-old waitress and student.

Twice the boyfriend had spotted Goulet lurking outside the couple's Northwest Portland condo last fall. The first time, the woman had been showering, then found the window screen missing and a stick propping open the blinds. But by then, the peeping Tom was gone.

The second time, the boyfriend chased Goulet across the street into Wallace Park, ordering him to never come back.

So on the night of Nov. 11, when the boyfriend spotted Goulet a third time, Goulet told jurors he knew he was in big trouble. But Goulet testified that he was simply walking by the condo building on his way home nearby. He carried a .22-caliber pistol, he said, on the off chance he might see the boyfriend.

Goulet testified the boyfriend tackled him without provocation.

And a four-day trial last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court came down to this: whether the jury would believe the account of a gun-toting voyeur who claimed he feared for his life, or that of the 26-year-old boyfriend, who testified Goulet was there to hurt him.

"This case is quite simply about vigilante justice," said defense attorney Kami White.

Deputy district attorney Greg Moawad, however, argued that Goulet had no reason to stand outside the condo with a gun except to "exact revenge" for the past encounters.

A key part of the case was why the boyfriend, Danny Thomas, and his girlfriend, Amy Luangrath, didn't call police the first two times Goulet appeared outside their Raleigh Street condo.

Thomas testified that he thought even if police tracked down the stranger he would get no more than a slap on the wrist.

Thomas also testified that he tried to call 9-1-1 the second time he spotted Goulet but couldn't complete the call as he tried to put Goulet in a headlock. Goulet promised he wouldn't bother them again, and Thomas let him go.

Then Thomas spotted Goulet in front of the condo building on Nov. 11. Thomas testified that when he asked Goulet why he was there, he jabbed his hand in his pocket and started to pull something out.

Thomas grabbed onto Goulet's hand. Within seconds, he knew it was a gun.

But Goulet, a military police officer and former Marine for six years, testified that he didn't pull out the gun but that it slipped out of a holster after Thomas began to pummel him. Goulet said Thomas pulled the trigger twice as the two struggled.

"To call it a fight is a misnomer, because I think of a fight as two people exchanging punches," Goulet said. "It was more of a beat down."

But Thomas testified that he was fighting for his life, as Goulet struggled to aim the gun at him. Thomas said Goulet fired twice -- one round narrowly missing Thomas' knee and another whizzing past his face.

"I said, 'Please don't kill me,'" Thomas testified.

Goulet finally dropped the gun after Luangrath dashed out of the condo and whacked him with a wooden plank.

Police arrived after Luangrath called them, and Goulet was charged with the felony crimes of attempted murder, unlawful use of a weapon and first-degree burglary for allegedly propping the stick into the window. He also faced misdemeanor charges of carrying a gun without a concealed weapons permit and invasion of privacy for peeping.

After a full day of deliberations Friday, the 12-person jury found Goulet not guilty of attempted murder and the other felonies, and guilty of the two misdemeanors.

Some jurors said they wanted to convict him of more but lacked the evidence to do so.

Goulet, who attended flight school and worked at Fred Meyer at the time of last fall's arrest, has another peeping conviction from 2000.

Judge Eric Bloch denied White's request to have her client immediately released from jail, where he's been for six months. Bloch said he had too many reservations about freeing Goulet without a special hearing.

Because Oregon law doesn't consider peeping a sex offense, Goulet won't have to register as a sex offender. But he does face punishment ranging from probation to two years in jail, when he's sentenced at a future date.

-- Aimee Green; aimeegreen@news.oregonian.com



