Michael Anthony Mullen

Case record: Michael Anthony Mullen

Background

Michael Anthony Mullen was an inmate at Stafford Creek Corrections Center. He was described as having an extensive law enforcement history, mostly involving minor crimes, and he had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse and criminal convictions for forgery and theft. Mullen wrote that he had been haunted since childhood and that he was molested as a child.

Mullen was held in Whatcom County Jail after turning himself in. A public defender appointed as standby counsel, Richard Fasy, said Mullen refused to have the court appoint a lawyer and that he was “not surprised” Mullen had written the letter and again confessed to the crimes. Fasy also said: “All I can say is that he is not that bad of a guy in some respects.”

Mullen described his motive in letters and statements to the media, including a plan to seek execution so that he could wait in the afterlife to “wreak vengeance” on Joseph Edward Duncan III. In a letter to The Seattle Times, Mullen wrote that he targeted two Level Three sex offenders because they “blammed [sic] their victims -- they showed NO remorse.” Mullen also wrote that he wanted “one alive to spread the message that 'we' will not tolerate 'our' children being used and abused.”

In an interview, Larry Mullen described many traits in his troubled brother, although there was no history of committing sex crimes.

The offence

Mullen was associated with the execution-style slayings of two Bellingham sex offenders. Mullen killed Victor Vazquez, 68, and Hank Eisses, 49, after posing as an FBI agent.

Mullen allegedly used a county sheriff’s Sex Offender Notification Web site to create a hit list of Level 3 offenders in Whatcom County. He went to a Bellingham home shared by the three convicted sex offenders on the evening of Aug. 26, according to prosecutors’ charging papers. Mullen questioned the occupants about their background and confirmed they were all Level 3 offenders.

Mullen wrote that he went to “interview” Eisses, the owner of the home, and he wrote that he checked the identities of the three men: Vazquez, Eisses and 42-year-old James Russell. Mullen wrote that only one of the three showed remorse or guilt and that he let that man go.

Victor Vazquez was convicted in 1991 of molesting several children and was released from prison about two years before the killings, according to the account of the case events. Hank Eisses was convicted in 1997 of raping a 13-year-old boy at his home in Sumas and was released from supervision about two years before the killings, according to the account provided.

All three men were described as convicted Level III sex offenders, considered to be at the highest risk of reoffending. The victims were killed with a single gunshot to the head.

Mullen said he did not kill a third man that day because he expressed remorse for his crimes.

Mullen’s purported “Agent Life” internet confession addressed the killings and described his plan to continue. It included the text:

“I am Agent Life! And I alone and [sic] respnsible [sic] for the deaths of the two level three pedophiles in Bellingham Washington, and they are not the last to be executed unless things change for the better,”

Mullen’s writings also included comments about “hunting pedophiles” and demanding “harsh action” against child molesters. Another posting referred to “strike bills” and included the text:

“In my bill, pedophiles do not get a second or third try. One strike, you're out!”

Mullen wrote about Dylan Groene and Shasta in relation to Joseph Edward Duncan III. He wrote that his “awful details” of those crimes drove him to take the law into his own hands. The account also identified Joseph Edward Duncan III as a Level 3 sex offender facing possible execution in Idaho for allegedly slaying three members of a Coeur d'Alene family so that he could kidnap two children for sex. The body of one of those children, Dylan Groene, 9, was found in a Montana campground. His 8-year-old sister, Shasta, was rescued July 2 while she and Duncan were having breakfast at a Coeur d'Alene restaurant.

Investigation

The Grays Harbor County Coroner Ed Fleming determined that Michael Mullen had died of pneumonia, but the manner of death was undetermined because “acute mild drug toxicity” was a contributing factor.

Ed Fleming said Mullen had ingested prescription drugs, and he said he would not say which drugs, describing it as “a medical privacy issue.” Fleming also said: “There was enough medication, but not enough to cause the death directly.” Fleming said the immediate cause of death was lobar pneumonia, described as an illness in which an infection of the lungs causes them to fill with fluid, interfering with the body’s ability to absorb oxygen.

An official at the State Patrol, which handled toxicology tests, said they were unable to discuss test results.

The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office preliminarily believed Mullen had taken his own life, basing that belief on a lack of blunt force trauma and because of writings recovered from the dead man’s cell.

Chad Lewis, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said the department was still putting the pieces together and that an investigation was still under way. Lewis said the corrections department did not comment on open investigations.

Mullen died on the night of April 15, two hours after being found unresponsive in his cell. The prison’s Health Care Unit provided first aid until emergency crews arrived.

Arrest / surrender

Michael Anthony Mullen turned himself in to authorities and was held in the Whatcom County Jail. He was being held on $1 million bail in the Whatcom County Jail after turning himself in, and he was described as turning himself in Monday. He called 911 to claim responsibility for the killings.

Police said Mullen’s 911 call included information that only the killer would know. Detectives and prosecutors reviewed Mullen’s letters and statements to police and others about the crimes. Officers later talked to Mullen after he called 911.

Trial

Mullen was charged with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder, which could result in the death penalty if he was convicted. Prosecutors said they would decide by Mullen’s Sept. 16 arraignment date whether to seek the death penalty.

Mac Setter, Whatcom County prosecutor and chief criminal deputy prosecutor, said Mullen’s references to his victims’ lack of remorse as a reason for killing them was just self-serving justification. Setter said Mullen planned to kill the men all along. Setter said Mullen intended to kill them from the outset, stating:

“He is trying to justify these killings, to make it sound like these men had some choice in their deaths, that he interviewed them and they failed his test by not being remorseful. They did not,”
“He intended to kill them from the outset.”

Arraignment was scheduled for next week.

Mullen indicated a desire to plead guilty during his first court appearance.

Sentencing

Mullen died in prison on April 15, 2007.

Appeals

No appeals were described.

Outcome

Ed Fleming determined that he died of pneumonia, and the manner of death was undetermined because “acute mild drug toxicity” was a contributing factor. The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office preliminarily believed Mullen had committed suicide.

Aftermath

An investigation was still under way at the time the details were released. Chad Lewis said the Department of Corrections was still putting the pieces together and did not comment on open investigations.

The account also included that, after the killings, The Bellingham Herald received an unsigned letter claiming responsibility for the killings, and that police notified convicted Level 3 sex offenders in the area as a precaution but said the letter was vague and could be a hoax.

Other details

Mullen wrote in a four-page letter in neat longhand sent from Whatcom County Jail that he would “beat J. Duncan to death, so I can be there when he arrives,” and he reiterated his plan to seek execution. The letter also said:

“My goal is to beat J. Duncan to death, so I can be there when he arrives,”

Mullen wrote that:

“It made me sick to think of the abuse Dylan suffered before he died. To be discarded like garbage,”

Mullen wrote about his motive:

“Don't get me wrong. 'I' am no saint,” and: “I've been haunted since childhood. I just don't want other children to grow up confused, sad, scared. ”

He also wrote:

“I am not proud of taking two lives, I would have gladly just gave my own,”
“But my death alone would have meant nothing.”

Mullen wrote about the justice system and society in relation to child sexual abuse, including:

“Some of these children will grow up to be drunks, addicts, theifs [sic] or act out sexually, sometimes becoming pedophiles themselfs,”

Mullen had been in an intensive management unit where he did not have contact with other inmates.

Chad Lewis said the department was still putting the pieces together and that the corrections department did not comment on open investigations.

Hank Eisses and Victor Vazquez were found shot to death at their apartment Aug. 27. A roommate discovered the bodies after returning about four hours later; the roommate said he left while a man wearing a blue jumpsuit and a cap that said FBI was still there.

Bellingham police Lt. Craige Ambrose said Mullen’s claim that he was molested as a child was contained in letters believed to be written by Mullen. Ambrose also said Mullen was believed to have written internet postings, including a confession to the slayings under the pseudonym “Agent Life,” and that detectives were reviewing other postings, including ones signed “Michael A. Mullen” in an AOL journal Aug. 23, four days before the killings. Ambrose said the internet confession appeared to have been erased shortly after it was posted, but a copy had been posted on a web log called The Dark Side.

In the personal section of the journal, the author wrote:

“never been good talking about myself,”
and: “Well lets [sic] wait and hear what the media/public has to say.”

The writings were interspersed throughout an editorial written by John Walsh, creator of “America's Most Wanted,” about federal sex-offender registry and notification laws. Walsh’s son was abducted and killed in 1981. The editorial included:

“In my opinion, just simply keeping them locked up is not good enough or fair for the victims,”
and: “Unless you spent time in one of our plush penal institutions in the first place then you have no clue how easy most convicted criminals have it.”