Attorney: Big Lake pastor fired in self-defense

BIG LAKE -- The pastor who shot and killed two intruders in the early morning darkness inside Big Lake Community Chapel yelled at the men to freeze but they rushed toward him, prompting gunshots from a sense of fear.

Attorneys representing Phillip Mielke gave that account of the April 24 incident to the Frontiersman on Wednesday.

"He fired because he felt threatened and thought that he had no safe alternative," Jerry Wade said in a prepared statement.

Alleged burglars Francis Marion Jones III, 23, and Christopher Lee Palmer, 31, died of wounds from Mielke's handgun soon after the 5 a.m. confrontation. Palmer District Attorney Roman Kalytiak said Tuesday there is "a good likelihood" a grand jury will be convened to consider criminal charges against the pastor.

Kalytiak said Alaska State Troopers talked briefly with Mielke just after the shooting, but have not interviewed him since he retained attorneys Wade and Pam Sullivan of the Anchorage firm Wade, Kelly & Sullivan.

If a grand jury is convened the panel could call Mielke to provide more information, although Kalytiak said that's not a sure thing. Even if Mielke wanted to testify, the DA said, a grand jury is not required to hear from him before deciding whether criminal charges are justified.

Kalytiak is awaiting the troopers' final report before deciding whether to request the jury be impaneled.

"Unless it was very obvious from the reports that he was defending himself or in the immediate process of stopping a burglary we will take it to the grand jury," said Kalytiak, who doesn't plan to make the report public.

Alaska law allows the use of deadly force if a person "reasonably believes" it is necessary to stop "an unlawful taking or damaging of property or services."

Deadly force also is justified under Alaska statutes if needed for self defense against death, serious physical injury, kidnapping, first- or second-degree sexual assault, or robbery in any degree.

In his statement, Wade described how Mielke was awakened by an alarm system in his home near the chapel after Jones and Palmer made a forced entry to the chapel "in what appears to have been an attempted burglary."

Mielke is licensed by the state of Alaska to carry a concealed weapon, Wade said, adding the pastor acted on his best judgment and the training he received in securing the weapon permit.

Here's how the incident unfolded, according to Wade's statement:

"Pastor Mielke rushed to the chapel in the dark with his pistol; determined that the back door to the complex had been forced; and concluded that intruders were in the basement meeting room.

He called to them from the top of a flight of stairs which led to the room.

"The lights in the stairwell flashed erratically and then went off again. In the darkness, Pastor Mielke heard the intruders rush toward him on the stairway. He called out an order to stop or freeze.

"Simultaneously he backed away, and, in the darkness it appeared to him that as the intruders reached the top of the stairs they moved toward him. At that moment he fired because he felt threatened …"

Wade said Mielke and his wife, Helen, gave complete statements to the troopers, and cooperated in every reasonable way with police and the district attorney's office. However, Wade said the couple are disappointed that the matter may go to a grand jury "in essentially secret proceedings."

If they are required to testify before a grand jury, they would have to do so in a hostile environment without legal counsel, Wade said. He and Sullivan believe there should be a public inquest before a coroner's jury. That forum would provide a neutral setting for the Mielkes' testimony and they could be accompanied by attorneys, Wade said.

"We are confident that Pastor Mielke's conduct during a very confusing and stressful sequence of events will ultimately be determined to have been fully justified," Wade said.

If Mielke is charged with a crime and the case goes to trial, Kalytiak does not anticipate seeking a change of venue from Palmer.

"We've had other cases that had a lot of publicity," the district attorney said. "In those cases we were able to find a sufficient number of fair-minded jurors."