Man pleads innocent in sex offender killings

BELLINGHAM – A man charged with two counts of aggravated first-degree murder in the killings of two registered sex offenders has pleaded innocent in Whatcom County Superior Court, the prosecutor’s office said.

Michael A. Mullen, 35, who had said at his initial hearing 10 days earlier that he wanted to plead guilty, was arraigned Friday before court Commissioner Alfred Heydrich. Mullen has also changed his mind about legal representation, originally saying he wanted to represent himself. As of Friday morning, public defender Richard Fasey was officially working as Mullen’s lawyer.

Deputy Prosecutor Mac Setter said in a statement that his office had one month to decide whether to seek the death penalty in the case. Conviction for aggravated first-degree murder carries only two penalties in Washington: death or life in prison without parole.

In statements to police, letters to the media and at his initial hearing, Mullen confessed to killing Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vazquez, 68, in their home on Aug. 26. Each was shot once in the head.

Setter told the Bellingham Herald on Friday he is “confident the statements (Mullen) made will be admissible in court,” but the judge will have to make that decision.

A trial date has not yet been set, but a preliminary date may be set in November, Setter said, adding that he didn’t expect the trial to begin in November.

Mullen, who turned himself in to police Sept. 5, offered a variety of motives for the killings: protecting his children, his own experience of child abuse, a desire to give his life value by protecting the community, and the case of Joseph Edward Duncan III, court documents said. Duncan is jailed in Idaho, awaiting trial in the bludgeoning deaths of three people – a crime authorities say was committed to give him access to two children for sex.

Vazquez and Eisses both served time in prison for child sex abuse. Their addresses were posted on the county’s Web site of registered sex offenders.