Dean Cummings Found Not Guilty in Murder Trial

Alaskan heli-skiing pioneer Dean Cummings was found not guilty by a New Mexico jury in his murder trial yesterday. Cummings was on trial for the murder of 47-year-old Guillermo Arriola, who was found dead on the floor of Cummings’ trailer near Los Alamos after Cummings says he shot him with an AR-15 in self-defense on February 29, 2020 following an argument about property.

Cummings was an early member of the US Freestyle Skiing team, and a pioneer of Alaskan extreme skiing. He won the World Extreme Skiing Championships in 1995, subsequently starting Valdez H20 guides, a heli-skiing outfit based out of Valdez, Alaska. After his company eventually went out of business, Cummings turned to the internet to express his views that he was the target of a vast criminal conspiracy that included Arriola.