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Murderer of two sex offenders sentenced to 44 years
BELLINGHAM A man who portrayed himself as an avenging angel for child sex-crime victims was sentenced to more than 44 years in prison Friday for killing two sex offenders.
Michael A. Mullen, 36, escaped a potential life sentence in a plea deal reached this week, ending a case considered one of the nation's worst cases of vigilantism against sex offenders.
Mullen had confessed to the high-profile killings in letters to the news media, expressing a desire to be executed as a symbol of retribution against sex offenders.
But he sat silently in court Friday when a judge issued his sentence.
"I almost wish we could have heard from you," said Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Ira Uhrig. "You put yourself above the law, and by doing so in some sense you put yourself above the rights of every citizen in the state of Washington."
Mullen was initially charged with premeditated first-degree murder for the Aug. 27 slayings of Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68, charges that could have resulted in a life sentence.
Mullen's plea to second-degree murder eliminated the premeditation element, but his sentence likely will give the same result of a lifetime in prison, said Mac Setter, Whatcom County's chief criminal prosecutor.
The execution-style killings of Eisses and Vasquez Level 3 sex offenders convicted of crimes against minors alarmed law-enforcement and corrections officials.
The men's address was listed on Washington's sex-offender registry, the first such database in the country, and officials feared that public outrage over sex offenders could lead to copy-cat crimes. No such trend has emerged.
Mullen, a petty criminal with alcohol and drug problems, turned himself in a week after the deaths. Police say he posed as an FBI agent when he knocked on Eisses' door.
In letters to The Seattle Times, Mullen said he targeted Eisses through the sex-offender registry and was surprised when he found two other sex offenders, Vasquez and James Russell, also were living in Eisses' Bellingham house.
Mullen claims he interviewed the three before letting Russell go.
"... Out of the three only one showed remorse or guilt. He is the one I let go," he wrote. "... I came to the conclusion that they must die, along with my own execution at the hands of the state, to drive my point home that 'WE' will protect 'our' children."
Vasquez's daughter, Eve, wept Friday as she addressed Mullen in court, lamenting that she could not continue a renewed relationship with her father.
"He's dead and he's not supposed to be dead," she said.
After the hearing, she told reporters, "I'm absolutely satisfied. Now I can take time to grieve and mourn my loss."
In his letters, Mullen said he was spurred to action by Joseph Edward Duncan III.
A convicted sex offender and former Washington prison inmate, Duncan is accused of murdering a North Idaho woman, her son and her boyfriend, then kidnapping and molesting the woman's 9-year-old son, Dylan Groene, and 8-year-old daughter, Shasta.
Duncan is accused of killing Dylan after molesting him.
Mullen said he would welcome the death penalty in order to beat Duncan into the afterlife and hold him accountable for the Groene family's deaths.
"I will see to it personally that their deaths and abuse was not in vain!" he wrote to The Times.
Mullen said he hoped his crime as well as the Duncan case would shock the state Legislature into getting tougher on sex offenders.
Legislators passed a package of new laws this last session
Gender: Female Location: every which way but loose
This is a difficult one, part of me is cheering the guy on for what he's done, but on the other hand he's murdered people and that can't be justified. But then, I guess you can't rely on the law, so he took it into his own hands. He got a harsher sentence than the sex offenders I'll bet
If he saw it fit to kill them, instead of allowing bureaucratic courts to handle the offenders, he should have had the sensibility to deny the crime not admit it with the 'guardian angle of society plea'.
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The law is too soft on sex offenders. High risk sex offenders are freed all the time, only to reoffend. A few more years in prison and they are out yet again, to once again prey on children. Sex offenders should be jailed for life, no exceptions.
He did nothing wrong, actually he toke action, something the state never did, but unfortunately for him there is something called Law that people just worship and blindly follow even if they donīt make sense. People donīt think if the law is right or wrong, they just follow.
I donīt think killing so bad, its illegal.. yes, but not always bad.
He killed two murderers, their lives are not so important. Not taking action agaisnt crime now is a big crime itself, worst than killing some murderers.
I think it is even good since it shows action agaisnt some type of injustice we have today in our world.
Gender: Unspecified Location: With Cinderella and the 9 Dwarves
a) it doesn't state that they were murderes
b) well if the lifes of these "murderers" are not so important I assume the life of the new "murderer" isn'T important much either.
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Murderer of two sex offenders sentenced to 44 years
Mar 12th, 2006 12:45 AM
