Man pleads guilty to highway execution-style killing

PALMER — An Anchorage man pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree in a Palmer courtroom Oct. 30.

Justin Brunsvold, 38, will be sentenced on Feb. 19, 2019, for the murder of 32-year-old Patrick McMullen. Brunsvold had been accused of killing McMullen, a Wasilla man, with his own 12-guage shotgun on Nov. 2, 2017.

McMullen’s body was discovered near a pull-out by Mile 59.4 of the Parks Highway on that same day, according to a sworn affidavit by Alaska State Trooper Sgt. Tony Wegrzyn, filed on Nov. 19, 2017. According to Wegrzyn’s report, McMullen’s girlfriend informed troopers that McMullen was going to meet Brunsvold in Houston to, “look for drugs.”

“She explained that McMullen had an addiction to methamphetamine and heroin and she was trying to get him clean,” Wegrzyn wrote in the report.

During the preliminary autopsy, authorities found that McMullen was shot one time in the head with a shotgun.

There was also evidence of a physical altercation. McMullen’s nose was broken and one of his eyebrows contained a fresh wound. The state medical examiner classified his death as homicide, according to the affidavit.

“I told Brunsvold, I think we have an understanding about what’s going on here and clarified that I knew what happened and how, but that I’d like to get his side of the story for the why,’” Wegrzyn wrote in the affidavit.

Wegrzyn wrote in his report that he talked to Brunsvold at his family cabin in Willow with a search warrant Nov. 15, 2017. On the same day, AST also searched Brunsvold’s Anchorage residence with warrant. Wegrzyn said that on Nov. 17, 2017, Brunsvold blamed “two other drug dealers” for McMullen’s killing, but Brunsvold was ultimately confronted with physical evidence and that prompted his confession.

Wegrzyn wrote in his report that Brunsvold said that he took McMullen to Mile 59.4 of the Parks Highway, attempting to purchase methamphetamine but the seller did not show. Brunsvold then asked McMullen to borrow his Ithaca 12-gage, pump-action shotgun to “shoot a rabbit in the woods”. Brunsvold said that McMullen, armed with his shotgun accused him of having an affair with his estranged wife. Brunsvold punched McMullen in the face, took his shotgun and shot him in the head, according to Wegrzyn.

“Brunsvold said that he knew he had killed McMullen as soon as he pulled the trigger. When asked why he tried to place the blame on the two men he initially accused, Brunsvold responded that if someone was going to go to jail for murder, it might as well be two drug dealers,” Wegrzyn concluded in his report.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com