Pastor wanted big gun to scare intruders

PALMER -- Defense and prosecuting attorneys rested their cases Thursday morning in the manslaughter trial of a Big Lake pastor who killed two men who broke into the chapel in an apparent burglary attempt. The jury was expected to begin deliberations late Thursday or today following final arguments by each side.

Phillip Mielke is charged in the April 24 deaths of Christopher Palmer, 31, and Francis Jones, 23. He testified Wednesday that he sometimes took a gun while investigating possible break-ins at Big Lake Community Chapel even before he got a conceal carry permit.

But after a couple of drunks showed up at the chapel one night in June 1999, and one of them urinated into the building, he decided it was time for training and a permit. He said a concealed weapon would be insurance against possible harm to himself "but I didn't want to spook someone."

Mielke said vandalism at the chapel has included graffiti, spit found on a doorknob, and old tires tossed into the parking lot by a passing motorist. Mielke said he never found an intruder in the chapel before April, but believed it was always a possibility.

"If you live in Big Lake, you learn pretty soon," he said.

Mielke said he owns three pistols, an 8-mm Mauser and a couple of .22-caliber rifles. One of the pistols -- the one used to kill Jones and Palmer -- is a .44 magnum. Mielke said he got it after people told him his .38-caliber pistols wouldn't protect him from bears.

Mielke said he goes moose hunting about once a year but doesn't often shoot the .44.

"I'm still on my first box of shells," he said.

He also thought the larger gun would be good for personal protection when he went to check on suspicious activity at the chapel.

"It would scare them and I wouldn't have to use it," he said. "The bigger the better. They wouldn't miss it.

"Little ones kill people just as good as the big ones, but my goal isn't to kill someone. It's to survive."

Collins questioned Mielke intensely about whether he'd considered the kind of situations in which he would shoot at a person.

"If a drunk wanted to hit you, would you have used the gun?" he asked.

"I don't know," Mielke replied. He added to Collins' follow-up questions that he wouldn't shoot one unarmed drunk who was about to hit him, but said he would fire at two unarmed drunks "if they came toward me to attack."

Collins also peppered Mielke with questions about where he stood when he fired the shots, and when he pulled the gun out of a shoulder holster under his shirt. Mielke often said he couldn't remember, that it was dark and things happened very quickly once the two men raced up a chapel stairway toward him.

Defense attorney Jim Gilmore emphasized the chapel's darkness and Mielke's need for split-second action in what the pastor deemed a life-threatening situation. Mielke told him it took the first intruder about two seconds to get from a stairway landing to the top of the stairs "right in front of me" when he shot.

Then Gilmore had the courtroom lights turned off. He asked if that looked more like the situation just after 5 a.m. when Mielke confronted the men.

"It's a lot closer," Mielke said.

He was on the stand for several hours Wednesday as the attorneys sparred. Gilmore referred to his client as "Pastor Mielke" while Collins called him "Mr. Mielke."

On Tuesday, Mielke said that in hindsight he probably should have called Alaska State Troopers to investigate the mysterious sounds in the chapel, which were picked up with baby monitors in the church and a receiver in his bedroom.

Mielke's wife Helen testified Tuesday that she didn't hear her husband yell from the chapel via a baby monitor for her to call troopers.