After being sentenced to life imprisonment last week, George Kieran Daunt is trying to find something positive in being put away, a friend of Daunt's said Thursday.

'If he has to serve the time, he's going to make the most of it,' Peter Maxwell, a Dawson City contractor and long-time friend of Daunt's, said in an interview. 'Overall, he's doing quite well.'

Daunt, a placer miner who lived in a shack without a phone for more than 20 years, will learn how to use a computer and take university courses while in prison.

Eight days ago in Yukon Supreme Court, after a jury trial, Daunt was sentenced to life imprisonment for the second-degree murder of Robert Truswell.

Maxwell said there are a lot of people in Dawson shaking their heads over the verdict.

'I couldn't believe it,' said Maxwell, who was in the Whitehorse courtroom when the decision came down. 'I was absolutely appalled. I was expecting an acquittal. They can't do this to a man.'

Daunt had claimed self-defence.

Truswell had been known for violent behaviour. He had threatened to kill Daunt the week before the fatal encounter on Aug. 28, 2003, and showed up on Daunt's property uninvited the day he died.

'I thought he had a gun in his arms,' Daunt testified, adding he couldn't see Truswell's arm. 'The next thing I remember is, there's a vehicle coming at me, trying to run me over.'

Daunt said it was either him or Truswell. That's why he fired his Mauser rifle three times.

'The poor man was terrified for his life,' said Maxwell. 'There is somebody dead, but that doesn't mean you have to ruin another life.'

Maxwell said sending Daunt to prison is not going to bring Truswell back, nor is it going to help society. Maxwell is hoping there will be grounds for Daunt to appeal the decision.

Daunt isn't angry with the jury, said Maxwell, who has visited Daunt in the Whitehorse Correctional Centre since the decision. 'He's not an angry individual.'

When Daunt was first arrested after the shooting, Maxwell, owner of Cross Country Carpentry and Construction, was one of three sureties who agreed to see to it that Daunt would make his court appearances while out on bail.

Duncan Spriggs, owner of the Westminster Hotel in Dawson, and Michael Fraser, regional manager of the territory's property management agency, were the two other sureties.

Each of the three men agreed to fork over $5,000 each if Daunt broke any of the conditions of his release.

While out on bail, Daunt lived with Maxwell and worked for him.

'Would you want to see a friend incarcerated for something that wasn't his fault?' asked Maxwell, who has known Daunt for 16 years.

The two met through Cam Sigurdson and 'Kieran and I hit it off right away,' said Maxwell.

'He is an extremely intelligent, kind and generous individual.'

While Daunt was in RCMP cells following the shooting, a number of Dawson residents wrote Daunt letters of support, sending them to the RCMP.

Truswell was a feared man in Dawson.

A native New Zealander with no immediate family in Canada, he arrived on the gold fields in the late '70s, having wanted to mine gold since he was 12 years old.

When Truswell first arrived in Canada, he lived in Prince Rupert, B.C., where he was married briefly. In 1979, he moved to Dawson and took to mining.

Truswell was known as 'Two-By-Four Bob' after he struck Gary Hodgkinson with a piece of lumber in Diamond Tooth Gerties gambling casino back in the '80s. Hodgkinson was in a coma for weeks after the incident, having had his head cracked in three places.

Today, Hodgkinson says he's glad Truswell is dead. Hodgkinson suffered dizzy spells and hearing loss years after being struck in the head.

Over the years, Truswell had shot at people who drove near his claim, damaged others' properties and kept a hit list that named a number of Dawson residents he wanted to kill.

'All of us know guys on the creek knew Two-By-Four coulda got us anytime,' said Earl Haldorson, a Bonanza Creek miner for 17 years.

It was rumoured Truswell had macheted two German tourists in the bush.

In a five-page affidavit, Dawson resident Henry Reinink said Truswell should have been run out of town like people were during the Klondike Gold Rush.

'The RCMP could give someone the blue ticket to leave town just for being a lunatic,' wrote Reinink, a 52-year-old Ontario-born man. That person would be given a boat and some bacon and told to go downstream and never come back, he wrote.

Not everybody thought Truswell was a terrible person.

Ian Bergsma had been friends with Truswell from 1997 to 2003. The two met in Edmonton.

A week before Truswell died, he called Bergsma to wish him a happy birthday.

'Robert was always very thoughtful with things around him,' said Bergsma. 'Robert needed a lot of love from the people around him.'

Bergsma thinks Daunt's sentence is appropriate.

Truswell wintered with Bergsma in Edmonton. And Bergsma spent three summers in Dawson to stay with Truswell and see his mining project.

'Robert would show me around the Yukon and Alaska. We did have great holidays together,' said Bergsma.

'Robert did know the history of gold mining very well, which is what made it very interesting to listen to him.'

Truswell would often pray to God and for that reason Bergsma believes Truswell will rest in peace.

'I lost a very good and trustworthy friend,' said Bergsma.

Even Maxwell said he never had any problems with Truswell.

One day, Truswell asked Maxwell for work.

'I smiled at Robert and said that probably wouldn't be a very good idea because he'd be working shoulder-to-shoulder with Gary Hodgkinson.'

Truswell agreed. It wasn't a good idea.

Other than that, Maxwell only ever saw Truswell on the streets from time to time.

A few hours before Truswell died, he was seen helping tourists pan for gold. Truswell was happy because things were finally going his way, said people who knew him.

Crown prosecutor David McWhinnie said Truswell did not seem like a man spoiling for a fight on the fateful day he was found shot in his truck in socked feet. His head was resting on the passenger seat.