Big Lake pastor's fate now in hands of jury

PALMER -- Jurors deciding the fate of Big Lake pastor Phillip Mielke deliberated Friday without reaching a decision in the manslaughter case. They'll begin again Monday morning.

Mielke is charged in the April 24 shooting deaths of Christopher Palmer, 31, and Francis Jones, 23. Defense and prosecuting attorneys painted vastly different pictures of the 44-year-old man during Thursday's closing arguments.

Assistant district attorney Bob Collins described him as someone obsessed with the goings-on at Big Lake Community Chapel across the street from Mielke's home. He monitored sounds in the building on a receiver in his bedroom that picked up the frequency of baby monitors in the chapel. In addition, Mielke kept a scanner in his bedroom to listen to police and fire dispatches.

"Can you imagine someone with such fascination with what is going on elsewhere?" he asked the jury.

Collins contended Mielke was primed for a confrontation such as the one with Palmer and Francis. He said the pastor's actions shortly after 5 a.m. were not reasonable.

"He brought deadly force to an unoccupied building," Collins said. "A reasonable person would have left that to the law enforcement professionals. He started a chain of events without thinking it through. A reasonable person would not have charged up there."

The prosecutor also tried to convince the jury that Mielke changed his story from the account he originally gave troopers. He first said he retreated to the chapel sanctuary when the two men came up a stairway, but later said he was at the top of the stairs and shot when they were just three feet away, Collins said.

He argued that the angle in which the bullets hit the men couldn't have occurred from where Mielke said he was standing.

"Mr. Mielke's versions of events have evolved the more he thought about it," Collins said. "Mr. Mielke is not being straight with you. He is spinning the facts, if not outright misrepresenting the facts, in order to put himself in the best light.

"These guys were running out of the building. It could have been some kids. It could have been some of his own parishioners. The bottom line is, the first time he pulls a gun he kills two men."

Collins urged the jury to look beyond the intruders' character -- the fact that they had broken in apparently to burglarize and had drugs in their systems at the time.

"Nobody's trying to argue that these guys were doing what they should have been doing. But you have to get beyond that. You have to afford the protection of the law to everyone."

In contrast, defense attorney Jim Gilmore said Mielke's actions were absolutely reasonable. There had been a history of vandalism at the chapel and Mielke was custodian and caretaker of the building as well as pastor.

Gilmore ridiculed Collins' contention that Mielke should have ignored the sounds he heard in the chapel via the baby monitor.

"When Mr. Mielke hears the first noise, he doesn't know if it is inside or outside. Mr. Collins says to stop right there. There were two options, according to Mr. Collins -- go back to bed or call 911. That's the reasonable thing to do, according to Mr. Collins."

Gilmore conducted a mock telephone conversation for the jury to show that a call from Mielke was pointless.

"'Thanks very much, Mr. Mielke, please call us again when you hear another noise that could be inside or outside the building,'" he said.

Gilmore said there were no signs of someone inside the chapel when he approached. Only when he saw a back door had been kicked open did he have reason to believe burglars were inside.

"He wouldn't have gone into the building if he thought somebody was there."

Gilmore added that Mielke was not a gun-nut bent on vigilantism, but rather a cautious person who prepared for the unlikely.

"He had the gun for the wild, once-in-a-lifetime situation," he said, adding the burglars were armed with a .357-caliber handgun, a knife and brass knuckles. "It was a totally unpredictable situation."

He said things could have turned out much differently if Mielke had been unarmed and the burglars had the gun with them as they approached, rather than stashing it in the basement.

"Mr. Mielke would be the victim," Gilmore said. "Instead, Mr. Mielke's conduct was reasonable. It happened in a matter of seconds and it happened in the dark. In his situation, his conduct was reasonable. His fear that caused him to pull the trigger was reasonable under the situation."

Mielke's actions also were in line with training he received before receiving a permit to carry a concealed weapon, the defense attorney said. Applicants are taught not to fire warning shots or to try to wound an aggressor. Instead, they are told to shoot for the main body mass.

Gilmore asked the jurors not to be swayed by what he called speculation by the state.

Family members supporting Mielke and those of the dead men have attended each court session. On Friday, while Judge Beverly Cutler gave the jury its final instructions, emotions ran high on both sides of the room.

Behind the prosecution's table, the sister of one of the slain men cried audibly. The mother of one of the men put her arm around the woman to comfort her.

In the first row of seats behind Mielke, a woman closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, apparently in prayer.

Meanwhile, Mielke has kept a steady, calm demeanor throughout the trial. He even attended to church business during a break Friday, talking with two parishioners about details of Enstar's plan to lay a new residential gas line in an easement on church property.