Pastor tells trooper 'I shouldn't have'

PALMER -- Jurors in the trial of pastor Phillip Mielke heard a tape Friday in which the defendant seemed to admit wrongdoing the morning he shot and killed two burglars in the Big Lake Community Chapel.

During an interview with Alaska State Trooper Timothy Lewis, Mielke said, "I shot and shot. They both fell. The one jumped up and ran for the car. That's the part I shouldn't have … "

He didn't finish the sentence. Then he added, "I shot through the window."

Mielke faces manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges in the deaths of Frank Jones, 23, and Chris Palmer, 31. He shot them with a .44-caliber revolver just after 5 a.m. on April 24.

According to Assistant District Attorney Bob Collins, the men had broken into the church to steal food and were fleeing when Mielke shot them in the back.

Collins said during opening statements that Mielke gave conflicting versions of the shooting to three troopers and to Wasilla Police Department chaplain Micky Boyer.

Defense attorney Jim Gilmore tried to chip away at that idea Friday afternoon by having Trooper Edward Halbert and Sgt. Richard Terry acknowledge their discussions with Mielke were brief rather than formal interviews. Halbert and Terry did not record their conversations and didn't take notes. Terry didn't write his report until the following day.

Gilmore said during his opening statement that it would be natural for someone in Mielke's highly emotional state to be unsure of some details, especially because the incident happened so quickly.

He replied to Collins' characterization of Mielke's statements as "fuzzy" by saying, "Something that happened in a nanosecond is a little fuzzy."

Gilmore wants the jury taken to the chapel to see where the shooting occurred.

"So you can walk the walk that Mr. Mielke made that morning," he said. "You've got to see that to know what Mr. Mielke encountered."

Superior Court Judge Beverly Cutler said it could be done, although it's a rare request. A site visit by jurors occurs only once in three or four years, she said. Cutler made no ruling Friday, but told Gilmore and Collins to work out details of the visit and bring it up later in the trial.

Jurors got a video-taped look at the chapel Friday afternoon. First, though, they were dismissed while the two attorneys talked with Cutler about the tape's appropriateness.

Gilmore objected to a section in which troopers walk up a stairway from the chapel's basement to the main floor. He said it represented a re-enactment of what happened just before the shootings and would be prejudicial.

Gilmore also objected to the tape because it was shot in July with lights on in the chapel. The early morning darkness of April 24 is a critical element in the case, he said.

"If you go into the church in daytime with lights off it is considerably different than what you see here," Gilmore said. "It is misleading. A jury view in this case would be much more beneficial."

Collins argued that the tape, shot by troopers, would help jurors visualize places they had heard about in testimony.

Judge Cutler agreed, saying the lighting conditions weren't prejudicial to either side. However, she ruled that the footage of troopers on the stairway could not be shown.

Mielke sat quietly throughout the trial's first day. He wore a sweater vest and short-sleeved dress shirt as in many previous court appearances. His wife was in the audience, but their four children were not. The children had been present during jury selection, quietly drawing in coloring books or playing with electronic games.

The day's only emotion came in the afternoon when Halbert described the position of Palmer when he died outside the church.

Shirley Novak, Palmer's mother, began crying when Halbert said, "He was laying on his back with his arms outstretched to the side."

The trial continues Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. Cutler estimated it will last another five or six days, although unrelated court duties will force the sessions to be spread over a couple of weeks.