CA- Homicide Victim A Registered Sex Offender

All stories kept saying "Police believed Keeley's background had nothing to do with his death." However, when the killer was apprehended he used the registry to find Keeley! BINGO, the police do not want to tarnish the image of the registry, knowing it is harmful to registrants..

8-12-2009 California:

Edward Vaughn Keeley, the victim of an apparent homicide in North Palm Springs, was a registered sex offender. Keeley, who was found dead in his back yard Monday, is registered on the California Megan's Law web site as a sex offender. He was convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14.

Mike Keeley, his son, says he was not a predator but said he had gotten involved with the young daughter of an ex back in the1980s.

The Riverside County Sheriff's department says there is no indication Keeley's criminal past had anything to do with his death. Deputies have released few details beyond that. They are investigating the case as a homicide.

Given they have no idea what the motive was, why specifically jump to this reasoning, others are also possible? One possible answer -which runs through these deaths- is, that law enforcement does not want to damage the image of the registry as a motive, lest it be taken down. We will watch for further reports...

"He was beaten pretty bad," Mike said. Mike did not know what murder weapon was used. Deputies have not released that information.

Keeley's family, who was visiting his ranch Wednesday, said he lived alone but often took in homeless people and drug abusers.

"He would see someone walking down the street, bring them in, get them job, get them work," said Troy Tehart, Keeley's son-in-law.

Tehart said Keeley had someone living on his ranch at the time of his death. That person, a contractor who had recently lost his job and home, had found his body. The contractor wasn't available for comment.

Mike Keeley said his father's home was ransacked and his car was found burned nearby. Mike said his father didn't have many valuables so it's hard to imagine why anyone would kill him.

"He buys a lot of yard sale stuff to build this place so it's not like he had cash or anything," Mike said.

Edward Vaugh Keeley was found dead Monday afternoon in the back yard of his home at 64600 block of 16th Ave. ..Source.. by Kimberly Cheng, KPSP Local 2 News

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Man, 75, found dead in own backyard; homicide suspected

The death of a 75-year-old man found in the backyard of his North Palm Springs home is being investigated as a homicide, investigators said Tuesday.

The body of Edward Vaughn Keeley was discovered about 5 p.m. Monday at 64-635 16th Ave. in an unincorporated area of Riverside County, Sheriff's Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela said.

The coroner is performing an autopsy to determine cause of death.
No arrests have been made.

Valenzuela released no further information, such as why investigators believe the death is a homicide.

The man's home is on a gravel road in a sparsely populated area just north of Dillon Road.

Investigators were in the area Tuesday interviewing neighbors.

“He's my ex,” said Teddy Jones, sitting in a car parked near the home.

“We talk and see each other all the time,” she said.

Jones said she had been in a relationship with the man for about 16 years. She moved out and into a home next door about five years ago, she said.

Jones, who said she was questioned by investigators, was waiting in a car in front of her home while her son was being interviewed.

Jones described the man as a “putterer” and said he volunteered at the Desert Hot Springs Senior Center.

“He had lunch there every day,” she said.

Keeley is a registered sex offender on the Megan's Law Web site. According to registration information, he was convicted of lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14.

``There is no information to suggest that he was murdered because he is
a registrant,'' Valenzuela said.

The sheriff's department asks anyone with information about the homicide to contact the Central Homicide Unit Investigator Joshua Button at (760) 393-3500 or Palm Desert station investigator Robert Garcia at (760) 836-1600. ..Source.. by Denise Goolsby • The Desert Sun

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Accused Sex Offender Gunman Pleads 'Not Guilty'

2-10-2010 California:

INDIO - A reputed drug dealer accused, along with another man, in the death of a convicted sex offender in North Palm Springs pleaded not guilty today to a murder charge.

Travis Martin Cody, 27, faces one count of first-degree murder and two special circumstance allegations -- committing a murder during a robbery and a burglary -- in the Aug. 10 death of Edward Vaughn Keeley, whose body was found in his back yard in the 64000 block of 16th Avenue.

Cody was in state prison on an unrelated offense and was transported on Feb. 5 to the Indio Jail for prosecution.

Also accused in Keeley's death is self-avowed white supremacist Steven Banister, 28, who is accused of using California's Megan's Law registry to track down Keeley.

Banister also faces the same special circumstance allegations, which make both men eligible for the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors will decide later in the case whether to seek capital punishment for the defendants.

Both men are due in court on Feb. 18 for a felony settlement conference.

Banister was released from prison less than a month before Keeley's death, according to a declaration filed in support of an arrest warrant.

Keeley's address was listed as the home of a convicted sex offender on a publicly accessible database created as a result of Megan's Law, said sheriff's Investigator Josh Button, who prepared the declaration.

Banister reportedly bragged in prison that he planned on assaulting homosexuals, rapists and pedophiles, according to Button. He allegedly used Megan's Law to target pedophiles and sex offenders for his burglaries.

Banister told his girlfriend that he had gotten into a fight with an old man, but did not know if the victim was dead or not, according to Button.

After Keeley's death, Banister went to Tennessee, where he was arrested in December.

Cody, who is being held without bail, told his mother and girlfriend in recorded jail conversations that he was at Keeley's home during the murder, Button wrote. ..Source.. by KESQ.com News Services

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Accused Sex Offender Gunman Pleads 'Not Guilty'

2-14-2010 California:

INDIO - A reputed drug dealer accused, along with another man, in the death of a convicted sex offender in North Palm Springs pleaded not guilty today to a murder charge.

Travis Martin Cody, 27, faces one count of first-degree murder and two special circumstance allegations -- committing a murder during a robbery and a burglary -- in the Aug. 10 death of Edward Vaughn Keeley, whose body was found in his back yard in the 64000 block of 16th Avenue.

Cody was in state prison on an unrelated offense and was transported on Feb. 5 to the Indio Jail for prosecution.

Also accused in Keeley's death is self-avowed white supremacist Steven Banister, 28, who is accused of using California's Megan's Law registry to track down Keeley.

Banister also faces the same special circumstance allegations, which make both men eligible for the death penalty if convicted. Prosecutors will decide later in the case whether to seek capital punishment for the defendants.

Both men are due in court on Feb. 18 for a felony settlement conference.

Banister was released from prison less than a month before Keeley's death, according to a declaration filed in support of an arrest warrant.

Keeley's address was listed as the home of a convicted sex offender on a publicly accessible database created as a result of Megan's Law, said sheriff's Investigator Josh Button, who prepared the declaration.

Banister reportedly bragged in prison that he planned on assaulting homosexuals, rapists and pedophiles, according to Button. He allegedly used Megan's Law to target pedophiles and sex offenders for his burglaries.

Banister told his girlfriend that he had gotten into a fight with an old man, but did not know if the victim was dead or not, according to Button.

After Keeley's death, Banister went to Tennessee, where he was arrested in December.

Cody, who is being held without bail, told his mother and girlfriend in recorded jail conversations that he was at Keeley's home during the murder, Button wrote. ..Source.. by KESQ.com

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Alleged white supremacist charged with killing convicted registered sex offender

1-10-2010 California:

PALM SPRINGS - An alleged white supremacist has been charged with using California's Megan's Law registry to track down and kill an convicted sex offender, it was reported today.

Steven Banister, 28, had been free from prison less than one month when he killed a 75-year-old Palm Springs man in his house on Aug. 28, 2009 according to Palm Springs police quoted in the Desert Sun. The victim, Edward Keeley, had apparently been convicted in years past of an undetermined sex crime.

Keeley's address was listed as the home of a convicted sex offender on the publicly-available roll of such properties created by Megan's Law. Banister had reportedly boasted while in prison that he was planning to hurt or kill people who had sexually abused children.

Banister, an avowed white supremacist from Desert Hot Springs, fled to Tennessee after the killing and was arrested there Dec. 10, the Desert Sun reported.

Earlier last year, Banister was living on parole in Desert Hot Springs when he was arrested during a highly-publicized roundup of parole violators, the newspaper reported. He was sent back to prison, where he boasted to other inmates he had robbed the elderly Keeley during his interlude of freedom.

Police found some of Banister's property, including a Derringer-style pistol and leather holster, in the home of Banister's friend, Travis Cody, the Desert Sun reported. ..Source.. Valley News

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Defendant accused of killing a sex offender has move to fire lawyer denied

4-8-2011 Texas:

A convicted felon accused of killing a sex offender tried to fire his attorney Thursday but was overruled by a judge, who is expected to set a trial date for the man and his alleged cohort in June.

Travis Martin Cody, 28, and Steven Aruther Banister, 29, could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstance allegations of killing during a burglary and robbery in the Aug. 10, 2009, death of Edward Vaughn Keeley.

Trial proceedings were slated to get under way Thursday, but a motion by Cody to dismiss his court-appointed lawyer, James Silva, delayed the process.

Following a closed-door hearing at the Indio courthouse, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Steven Counelis denied Cody's request and scheduled a trial-setting conference for Cody and Banister on June 7.

Silva told City News Service he would need at least that amount of time to review recorded jailhouse phone conversations initiated by Cody.

Banister, an avowed white supremacist, is accused of using the California Megan's Law registry of convicted sex criminals to track down Keeley, whose body was found in the backyard of his house in the 64-000 block of 16th Avenue in North Palm Springs.

Banister was released from prison less than a month before Keeley's death, according to court papers.

He and Cody are longtime friends.

They were convicted in 2002 of burglarizing a Desert Hot Springs storage facility.

Banister allegedly bragged in prison that he planned on assaulting homosexuals, rapists and pedophiles, according to court documents.

He allegedly used the Megan's Law database to target pedophiles and sex offenders for burglaries.

The defendant told his girlfriend that he had gotten into a fight with an old man, but did not know if the victim was dead or not, according to sheriff's Investigator Josh Button.

After Keeley's death, Banister went to Tennessee, where he was arrested in December 2009.

Cody told his mother and girlfriend in recorded jail conversations that he was at Keeley's home during the murder, Button said.

Investigators also found some of Banister's property, including a Derringer-style pistol and leather holster, at Cody's residence.

Cody was in state prison on an unrelated offense when he was arrested in connection with the Keeley slaying.

The defendants could have faced the death penalty, but prosecutors decided late last summer not to pursue capital punishment. ..Source.. by City News Service

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Trial date set for suspects in Palm Springs killing

1-6-2012 California:

A Jan. 20 trial date was set today for two men, one of them a white supremacist, accused in the killing of a sex offender in Palm Springs.

Travis Martin Cody, 29, and Steven Arthur Banister, 30, could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder with special circumstance allegations of killing during a burglary and robbery in the Aug. 10, 2009, death of 75-year-old Edward Vaughn Keeley.

Banister -- an avowed white supremacist -- is accused of using the California Megan's Law registry of convicted sex criminals to track down Keeley, whose body was found in the backyard of his house in the 64000 block of 16th Avenue in North Palm Springs.

At a trial-readiness conference today at Indio's Larson Justice Center, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Thomas N. Douglass set a Jan. 20 trial date for the two men.

Banister was released from prison less than a month before Keeley's death, according to court papers. He and Cody are longtime friends. They were convicted in 2002 of burglarizing a Desert Hot Springs storage facility.

Banister allegedly bragged in prison that he planned on assaulting homosexuals, rapists and pedophiles, according to court documents. He allegedly used the Megan's Law database to target pedophiles and sex offenders for burglaries.

The defendant told his girlfriend that he had gotten into a fight with an old man, but did not know if the victim was dead or not, according to sheriff's Investigator Josh Button. After Keeley's death, Banister went to Tennessee, where he was arrested in December 2009.

Cody told his mother and girlfriend in recorded jail conversations that he was at Keeley's home during the murder, Button said.

Cody was in state prison on an unrelated offense when he was arrested in connection with the Keeley slaying.

The defendants could have faced the death penalty, but prosecutors decided in 2010 not to pursue capital punishment. ..Source.. by City News Service

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2 convicted of robbing, killing homeowner, 75, near Desert Hot Springs

3-8-2012 California:

INDIO — Two men were convicted Thursday of murdering a 75-year-old man during a burglary at his home near Desert Hot Springs.

Jurors deliberated about a half-day before returning guilty verdicts against Travis Martin Cody, 29, and Steven Arthur Banister, 30, and finding true special circumstance allegations of killing during a burglary and robbery in the Aug. 9, 2009, death of Edward Vaughn Keeley.

A man living in a trailer on the victim's property in an unincorporated area of Riverside County near Desert Hot Springs found Keeley dead in his home the next day.

Cody and Banister face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The special circumstance allegations made them eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors decided in 2010 not to pursue capital punishment.

Deputy District Attorney Scot Clark told jurors that Banister and Cody weren't happy with what they found when they broke into Keeley's home.

They ransacked the residence before binding Keeley with a necktie and beating him in the head with the stock of a shotgun, the prosecutor said.

“Ed Keeley was asphyxiated and strangled after — after — they inflicted that beating,” Clark said in his closing argument Wednesday. “Ladies and gentlemen, Ed Keeley was alive through all of that it almost takes on a torture quality when they did to Ed Keeley. Somebody was mighty, mighty angry they didn't get what they came to get.”

Clark said the two men had previously broken into some outbuildings on Keeley's property and thought they'd find something better in the principal dwelling.

“Someone was looking for something; someone was looking to take his property,” Clark said.

He said authorities later found property belonging to Keeley at the defendants' homes, including a pistol hidden, with a lighter, inside a television set at Cody's house. Keeley's car was found burned about a mile and a half from his house, the prosecutor said.

He said that in a prison phone call, Cody told his mother that he was at Keeley's home at the time of the murder and expected to go to prison “forever.”

Banister — who left for Tennessee after Keeley's death and was arrested there — told his girlfriend the day after the victim's death that he had gotten into a fight with an elderly man and did not know if he was dead or not, Clark said.

“I don't get to say this very often — take the defendants' words for it,” he said.

The prosecutor said one witness, Michael Madrid, had information he could only have gotten from someone involved with the crime. Madrid told police that Cody had told him about the robbery and killing, then said in court this week that he made it up or didn't remember.

“There's a level of detail he wouldn't get from talk out on the streets,” Clark said.

Cody's attorney, Leni Jacobs, argued there was no physical evidence linking her client to the crime and that witnesses were inconsistent in their testmony.

“There's no DNA, no fingerprints — even the tire tread marks check by Detective (Kenneth) Patterson, they didn't match,” she said in her closing argument.

Banister's attorney, Greg Johnson, said his client had been in prison in the past and had made mistakes, but maintained that he was innocent of murder.

“Yes, he's a thief — he steals cars, he steals dirt bikes.

“But he is not a killer,” Johnson said. ..Source.. by Joy Juedes, City News Service

WA- Killings of 2 Bellingham sex offenders may have been by vigilante, police say

This documents one (Hank Eisses) of the two deaths that night. The story of the other sex offender murdered (Victor Vasquez) is HERE

8-30-2005 Washington:

BELLINGHAM — Last Friday night, a man claiming to be an FBI agent dropped in on three Level 3 sex offenders living together, supposedly to warn them of an Internet "hit list" targeting sex offenders.

The man was not an FBI agent, but he may have been enforcing a hit list of his own creation.

Two of the roommates were found dead early Saturday of gunshot wounds, and Bellingham police are investigating a crime that authorities say may be one of the nation's most serious cases of vigilantism aimed at sex offenders.

The killings also highlight a potential problem about Washington's 1990 law requiring sex offenders to register their addresses so the public can keep track of them.

Bellingham Police Chief Randall Carroll said it is too early to conclude that Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68, were killed because they were sex offenders. Police released a sketch of the suspect, who is still at large.

Note: See what Vasquez's daughter has to say about her father's murder.

But Carroll noted that their address — and descriptions of their crimes — were posted on the city's Web site, and if someone used that information to target Eisses and Vasquez, it could have a broad impact.

"Certainly if sex offenders were targeted and attacked because of their offense, the Legislature could decide they could repeal our sex-offender notification law," Carroll said.

Eisses owned the house where the killings took place, and had rented rooms for the past three years to Vasquez and James Russell, 42.

Russell was there the night the suspect showed up, but he soon left to go to work. When he returned about 3 a.m., he told police, he found his roommates dead. Based on their estimated time of death, and the fact that Russell was at work, he is not considered a suspect, according to police. Results of an autopsy are expected later this week, Carroll said.

Vasquez was convicted in 1991 of molesting several relatives. According to court documents, his victims endured regular abuse, sexual and otherwise. He was on Department of Corrections supervision at the time of the murder.

Russell was convicted in 1994 of molesting a 3-year-old girl, and released from DOC supervision about three weeks ago after serving 5 ½ years in prison.

While the public is understandably concerned about sex crimes, Kit Bail, a DOC official, said the three men have been quiet, law-abiding offenders while living together. None of the three had violated supervision conditions, she said, and none had reoffended.

"In a sense, they are a success story," said Bail, the DOC's field supervisor for Whatcom County. "These guys were doing fine. They were employed. They were living according to the conditions."

The killings, she said, should "not be the basis on which we change the laws on registration, but if it is a vigilante act, it gives one pause. It gives me concern about other Level 3 sex offenders living responsibly — or even irresponsibly — in the community. Murder is not the response anywhere."

A fake FBI agent

Eisses was sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison in 1997 for raping a 13-year-old boy at his home in Sumas, near the Canadian border. He was released from DOC supervision about two years ago, Bail said.

He bought a blue house with a white picket fence in Bellingham's Columbia neighborhood — about a half-mile from a middle school — with the help of Theodore Kingma. In a brief interview, Kingma said he met Eisses at church. "He confessed his sins, and he lived right with God and the neighbors," said Kingma. "That's all I know."

It is unclear how Eisses met Russell and Vasquez. One of Russell's relatives said Russell's sex-offender status made it difficult to find a place to live until he moved in with Eisses.

According to police, Russell said a man wearing a blue jumpsuit and a hat with an FBI logo dropped by at about 9 p.m. on Friday to warn the trio of the alleged "hit list."

There were no FBI agents in the neighborhood that day, prompting the bureau to open an investigation of impersonation, said FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs. The case does not qualify for federal hate-crime prosecution because the law does not appear to cover sex offenders, she said.

Too much information?

In response to a series of vicious sex crimes against children, Washington became the first state to require sex offenders to register their address upon release from prison. Level 3 offenders like Eisses, Vasquez and Russell, considered the most likely to commit a new crime, must register for life.

Since then, most states and the federal government have passed similar mandatory-notification laws.

A searchable, statewide database maintained by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs provides block-specific addresses for Level 2 and 3 offenders. Other municipalities — including Bellingham — go further by giving exact addresses.

That information has led some to take the law into their own hands. In 1993, Joseph Gallardo planned to move into his family's home in Lynnwood after serving about three years for the statutory rape of a 10-year-old girl.

The home was burned after neighbors heard of Gallardo's plan. He then planned to move to New Mexico but encountered fierce protests there. He returned to Lynnwood, where he still lives. He has not been convicted of another crime.

John La Fond, a lawyer who fought the notification law on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, said posting sex offenders' addresses "almost becomes a confession by the state that they cannot keep the society safe from harm, and invites society to take matters into its own hands."

In researching a 2005 book on notification laws, he found dozens of assaults and harassment against sex offenders. Eisses and Vasquez, he said, may be the first deaths.

Don Pierce, head of the police-chiefs association, said the case will renew the debate on publishing sex offenders' addresses.

"I think there are risks and this may prove to be an example of one of those risks," said Pierce. "I also think the public and Legislature have said there's a risk to the general public if they don't know with specificity where a sex offender lives." ..more.. by Mike Carter and staff researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.

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Police Say Idaho Case Inspired Sex Offenders' Killer

9-7-2005 National

SEATTLE -- The man who confessed to slaying two registered sex offenders in Bellingham told police that he was outraged by the recent case of Joseph Edward Duncan III, a convicted sexual predator being held in Idaho.

Michael Anthony Mullen, 36, made a brief court appearance Tuesday in Whatcom County Superior Court, about 80 miles north of here, after turning himself in to Bellingham police Monday afternoon.

A longtime resident of Whatcom County with a history of petty crimes, Mullen faces charges in the Aug. 26 shooting deaths of Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68. Both victims were Level III sex offenders, considered the most likely to commit similar crimes again. Mullen's arrest all but ended fears that a vigilante was on the loose targeting other registered sex offenders in the Bellingham area.

"It's a relief that he's not running around anymore with who-knows-what on his mind, probably more of the same," said Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson, who was informed of Mullen's arrest just minutes after it happened.

According to police, Mullen called 911 from a Bellingham restaurant and confessed to the murders. He was arrested and questioned for "hours and hours," said Bellingham police Lt. Craige Ambrose.

Investigators said Mullen provided details of the crime that only the killer would know, such as the caliber of the weapon and the way in which each victim was shot: once in the head. Ambrose said that during the interview Mullen repeatedly "came back around to the Idaho incident," referring to the Duncan case.

"Let's just say he was influenced by what happened there," Ambrose said. Duncan, a 42-year-old convicted sex predator from Tacoma, Wash., is in Kootenai County, Idaho, awaiting trial for the murders of four people and the kidnapping of two children in May near Coeur D'Alene. Duncan is being investigated in the deaths of other children across four states.

Less than two weeks after Duncan's case made national headlines, police said Mullen got on a Whatcom County Website that listed the names and addresses of all Level III sex offenders in the county.

Eisses and Vasquez lived with a third sex offender in a little green house on Northwest Avenue. According to earlier reports, the suspect had entered the victims' home, just north of downtown Bellingham, impersonating an FBI agent. The suspect told the men there was a "hit list" targeting sex offenders and that he was there to warn them.

The third man left for work with the suspect still in the house. When he returned home from work, the man found his housemates dead. Eisses had been convicted of child rape, Vaquez, of child rape and molestation. Both men had committed their crimes in Whatcom County.

On Aug. 31, five days after the murders, the Bellingham Herald received a letter from someone claiming responsibility for the killings and threatening to kill all other Whatcom County sex offenders designated as Level III. The county has 31 registered Level III offenders, including four in Bellingham, which has a population of 71,000.

Police said Mullen has confessed to sending the letter, and told investigators that more letters would soon be arriving at other media outlets. Ambrose said he did not know the content of those letters.

Ambrose said Mullen, a big man standing at 6-foot-5-inches and weighing nearly 250 pounds, had no known history of violence but had an extensive history of theft and other property crimes. Mullen had no permanent address, police said.

The slayings stirred debate over the 1990 state law requiring sex offenders to register their addresses. Washington was the first state to pass such a law, which is intended to help the public keep track of dangerous sexual predators. Congress mandated that states create registers of sex offenders. Now all 50 states have their own version of Washington's Community Protection Act.

Supporters say the public has a right to know about such offenders, but opponents argue that publicizing exact addresses invites vigilantism and prevents sexual offenders from leading normal lives. ..more.. by AP

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Sketchy details released on inmate death

9-15-2007 Washington

Michael Mullen, a Stafford Creek Corrections Center inmate who died in April, was determined to have died of pneumonia, but the manner of death is undetermined because “acute mild drug toxicity” is a contributing factor, according to Grays Harbor County Coroner Ed Fleming. Initially, the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Department indicated they believed Mullen had committed suicide.

Mullen, from Bellingham, had an extensive law enforcement history, mostly involving minor crimes. But he was at Stafford Creek for the high-profile murder of two Level Three sex offenders, whom he found on a local sex offender registry Web site. He killed the two men after showing up at their home posing as an FBI agent, a ruse he said he used to confirm that the men were indeed sex offenders and to determine if they were sincerely repentant.

Fleming said Mullen had ingested prescription drugs, but the coroner would not say which drugs. “It’s a medical privacy issue,” he said. And he would not say whether the doses were therapeutic or not.

“There was enough medication, but not enough to cause the death directly,” Fleming said.

Instead, Fleming said, the immediate cause of death was lobar pneumonia, an illness in which an infection of the lungs causes them to fill with fluid, interfering with the body’s ability to absorb oxygen.

An official at the State Patrol, which handles the toxicology tests, said they were unable to discuss test results.

The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office preliminarily believed Mullen, 37, had taken his own life, basing that on a lack of blunt force trauma and because of writings recovered from the dead man’s cell. Mullen was in the intensive management unit, where he did not have contact with other inmates.

Chad Lewis, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said the department was still putting the pieces together to figure out what led to Mullen’s death. An investigation is still under way, and the corrections department does not comment on open investigations, Lewis said.

Mullen died on the night of April 15, two hours after being found unresponsive in his cell. The prison’s Health Care Unit gave him first aid until emergency crews arrived. ..more.. by Callie White - Daily World Writer

Megan's Law listing may have led to slaying

12-10-2007 California:

Lake County prosecutors have investigated the possibility that information in the Internet database might have been the motive for the killing of a convicted sex offender.

LAKEPORT, CALIF. -- -- Convicted rapist Michael A. Dodele had been free just 35 days when sheriff's deputies found him dead last month in his aging, tan mobile home, his chest and left side punctured with stab wounds.

Officers quickly arrested Dodele's neighbor, 29-year-old construction worker Ivan Garcia Oliver, who made "incriminating comments, essentially admitting to his attacking Dodele," the Lake County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

Prosecutors said they have investigated the possibility that the slaying of Dodele, 67, stemmed from his having been listed on the state's Megan's Law database of sex offenders. If so, his death may be the first in the state to result from such a listing, experts said.

Oliver pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder, burglary and elder abuse when he was arraigned Nov. 30.

In a jailhouse interview Wednesday night, Oliver said he has a son who was molested in the past, and he took action to protect the child.

"Society may see the action I took as unacceptable in the eyes of 'normal' people," Oliver said. "I felt that by not taking evasive action as a father in the right direction, I might as well have taken my child to some swamp filled with alligators and had them tear him to pieces. It's no different."

Although Oliver did not say he killed Dodele, he said that "any father in my position, with moral, home, family values, wouldn't have done any different. At the end of the day, what are we as parents? Protectors, caregivers, nurturers."

In fact, Dodele was not a child molester. But a listing on the Megan's Law website could have left Oliver with the impression that he had abused children because of the way it was written.

Although Dodele's listing has been taken down since his death, a spokesman for the state attorney general said the site described the man's offenses as "rape by force" and "oral copulation with a person under 14 or by force."

"He was convicted of other bad things, but nothing involving a minor," said Richard F. Hinchcliff, chief deputy district attorney for Lake County. But "it would be easy to understand why someone might think so looking at the website."

Dodele's crimes involved sexual assaults on adult women, records show.

A neighbor at the Western Hills Resort & Trailer Park, a tattered collection of mobile homes and bungalows, said that two days before the killing, Oliver "told every house" in the park that he'd found Dodele listed on the website of convicted sexual offenders and was uncomfortable living near him.

"He looked it up on the computer . . . ," the neighbor said. "He said [Dodele] can't be around here."

The park resident requested anonymity because of a fear of reprisal, but reported Oliver's visit and statements to sheriff's deputies after the slaying. "A lot of people told them" about Oliver's claims, the person said.

Officials in Lake County -- a patchwork of wealth and poverty, vineyards and mobile home parks just north of Napa Valley -- would not offer a motive for the killing.

Hinchcliff acknowledged, however, that one possible motive investigated by the district attorney's office was that Oliver knew Dodele was on the Megan's Law list and did not want him as a neighbor.

According to court documents, Dodele committed his first offenses at age 15 and spent the last two decades either in prison or at Atascadero State Hospital receiving treatment.

His last attack was the 1987 knife-point rape of a 37-year-old woman on a Sonoma County beach.

Those were the charges that were listed on the Megan's Law website.

"I think [Oliver and Dodele] are both victims of the Internet," said Charlene Steen, a psychologist who examined Dodele on behalf of the defense in two 2007 trials about whether he should be recommitted to Atascadero.

Both ended in hung juries. Dodele was freed Oct. 16 and was hoping to start over in the crowded little mobile home park, where neighbors described him as open and friendly.

"The family is just sick," Steen said. "They finally got him back. They all thought he had made such great progress, and then this happened. It's pretty bad."

At 10:14 a.m. Nov. 20, an anonymous woman called 911 to report that a man was bleeding from his hands and directed medical personnel to Dodele's space at the mobile home park, according to a written statement from the Sheriff's Department.

When deputies arrived, they found Dodele's body.

The dead man's "immediate neighbors and other residents" sent the deputies to Oliver's home, the statement said, because "he had been seen recently leaving Dodele's residence with what appeared to be blood on his hands and clothing."

There was blood on a car in front of Oliver's house and at the front door of the concrete-block duplex. Inside, deputies reportedly found Oliver with blood on his hands and clothing and "injuries to his hands, consistent with having been in a physical altercation."

Authorities will not divulge exactly what Oliver said when he was arrested.

Steen wrote a letter to a local paper decrying Dodele's death "simply because he was a sex offender whose name and picture were on the registry."

Shortly after the letter was published, Steen said, a woman describing herself as Oliver's wife called to complain.

"She said, 'We have a child who was molested, and my husband is very upset to have a child molester living nearby'," Steen recounted, noting the irony that Dodele's crimes all involved adult women.

Steen said she had not talked to police about the phone call. Oliver said that the woman with whom he lived in the trailer park was his girlfriend, and the two were not married.

Attempts to reach the woman failed. One neighbor said she had moved away after the slaying.

Oliver is being held without bail, a police statement said, because he was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in San Diego and was on parole when Dodele was killed.

Speaking from behind a thick glass divider in the visiting area of the Lake County Correctional Facility, Oliver said his son had been molested, but he declined to give the details of his son's assault or to give the child's name.

Although he spoke of "the action I took," he would not describe what happened in the aging mobile home the Tuesday morning before Thanksgiving.

Oliver would not comment on whether Dodele had ever approached his son.

But Oliver said he saw the older man looking at the boy.

"It was more than watching," Oliver said. "You could see his eyes. He was fantasizing, plotting. Later on down the line, who knows how many other children he could have hurt."

Research indicates that, in general, the older rapists get, the lower their risk of re-offending, said L.C. Miccio-Fonseca, chairwoman of the California Coalition on Sex Offenders, a group of treatment providers, probation and parole officers.

In addition, she said, sex offenders who target grown women over the course of many years are unlikely to victimize children.

But when told that Dodele's victims were women and not children, Oliver seemed unfazed. "There is no curing the people that do it," he said.

Oliver's preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 7.

Asked about what he thinks will happen to him, he said, "It's hard to tell at this point. There's no doubt I'm looking at a numerous amount of years. I'm not a lawyer. We haven't gone over the evidence."

But he also said that he "would never change who I am or what I do because of what society thinks is right or not right. I have always been who I am and always will be." ..more.. by Maria L. La Ganga, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

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New charge for Lakeport man
Police say Oliver, accused of killing neighbor, found with weapon in jail
12-20-2007 California:

A Lakeport man charged with fatally stabbing a neighbor he apparently thought was a pedophile now faces an additional charge of sharpening a toothbrush into a weapon while incarcerated.

Ivan Garcia Oliver, 29, has been charged with a felony count of possessing a weapon in jail, said Lake County Sheriff Rod Mitchell. He already was facing a first-degree murder charge in the stabbing death of Michael Dodele, a convicted rapist, in November.

In a jailhouse interview, Oliver told the Los Angeles Times he thought Dodele was a child molester, based on a faulty reading of the charges on an official sex offender Web registry. He said he acted to protect his son.

However, Dodele's sex crime conviction was for raping an adult Santa Rosa woman. Because he was a repeat offender, Dodele served nearly 20 years for the assault before being released two months ago.

Oliver previously was convicted in San Diego County of assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing a man multiple times, said San Diego County District Attorney's Office spokesman Steve Walker. In that 2003 case, Oliver stabbed a security guard who confronted him and and two other men after they left a restaurant without paying, he said.

He was sentenced to four years in prison, Walker said.

The discovery last week of the sharpened toothbrush was particularly troubling given Oliver's record, Mitchell said.

"Based on this man's history, I certainly think the discovery may have prevented a very serious injury to someone else, particularly a member of my staff," he said.

Mitchell said Oliver cannot claim to have made the device in order to protect himself because he was being held in protective confinement away from other inmates.

"He was in no danger," Mitchell said.

A corrections officer discovered the weapon last week while searching Oliver before moving him from one solitary cell to another, Mitchell said. ..more.. by Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or glenda.anderson@pressdemocrat.com

Earlier Articles

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Law enforcement officers testify in accused sex offender killer trial

7-26-2012:

Law enforcement personnel took the stand on the second day of testimony in the trial of a nearly five-year-old murder case against a Lakeport man.

Ivan Garcia Oliver, 34, is accused of using information obtained from the Megan's Law online sex offender registry to kill Michael A. Dodele, 67, a registered sex offender at the time, on Nov. 20, 2007.

Oliver faces three felonies, including murder. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and denied several special allegations in the case. Richard Hinchcliff, chief deputy district attorney, is prosecuting the case. Oliver is represented by attorney Stephen Carter. Judge Arthur H. Mann presided.

Four law enforcement officers testified Thursday, including the first Lake County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) deputy on scene and the lead investigator.

Thomas Andrews was the first LCSO deputy to arrive at Western Hills Resort trailer park that day.

Andrews testified he was dispatched to the trailer park at 10:15 a.m. for a report of a man with bleeding hands in front of space 19. He said he arrived on scene within five minutes.

Upon entering the driveway, he made contact with a man in front of space 31, whom Andrews said he later learned was Oliver. Andrews said he asked Oliver where space 19 was located, and Oliver allegedly told Andrews it was at the back of the trailer park.

Andrews said he saw a 19 on a trailer nearby, to which Oliver allegedly responded that the trailer numbers were mismarked and that it was at the back. Andrews said he then drove around the park and ended up on the other side of the trailer in space 19, which he said was the second trailer upon entering the park.

Andrews said he didn't see anyone in front of space 19 but noticed a sliding glass door was open. He said he announced himself as he approached the trailer and, as he moved aside some closed window blinds, noticed blood drops on the floor of the living room area that continued toward the kitchen and down a hallway.

Andrews said he announced himself again, entered the trailer and followed the blood trail to the hallway. After waiting for backup, he said the two deputies walked past the closed bathroom door, where the trail continued, and into the bedroom.

Andrews said they discovered Dodele's body at the foot of the bed in the fetal position. He said he checked for a pulse and found none, noting that Dodele was warm to the touch.

Andrews said he notified dispatch, requesting an ambulance and an LCSO investigation team.

During the investigation, Andrews said he noticed blood drops around the trunk area of a white car parked outside space 31 as well as on the front door handle to space 31B. He said he knocked on the door to 31B several times and received no answer. After other deputies arrived and further attempts to contact the residents of 31B went unanswered, Andrews said the deputies forced entry into the trailer. Andrews said Oliver was located in the residence along with his 4-year-old son and girlfriend.

LCSO Lt. Brian Kenner said he assisted in the forced entry of 31B. Upon entering, he said Oliver was discovered on the floor of the kitchen.

Kenner testified Oliver later allegedly admitted to the crime and said that he was defending his family after Dodele allegedly attacked them and went after his son. Kenner said Oliver "seemed agitated."

Kenner said Oliver had a wound on the back of his right hand around the webbing. He said he rode in an ambulance with Oliver to Sutter Lakeside Hospital, where Oliver received several stitches for the wound. Kenner testified that Oliver told the doctor treating him that he cut himself while shaving.

Brian Martin, a former LCSO lieutenant, testified a cellphone was discovered by another investigator between the mattress and box spring of the bed in 31B.

Martin said he contacted Dodele's sister, and asked for Dodele's cellphone number. Martin said he allegedly called the number she provided and the phone rang, leading the investigators to believe it belonged to Dodele.

Martin also searched an area behind 31B because the window screen in the bathroom was allegedly pushed out and there was blood on the window sill. Upon investigation, Martin said he discovered two knives. Oliver's then-girlfriend confirmed one knife belonged to Oliver, according to Martin.

LCSO Sgt. Corey Paulich, the lead investigator, described to the jury photos taken inside Dodele's trailer, many of which showed a trail of blood drops and other places where blood evidence was present. Paulich testified he smelled bleach upon entering Dodele's trailer. He said he allegedly saw an area of the rug where it was recently scrubbed or cleaned.

Hinchcliff provided more than 40 crime scene photos for the jury to look at before testimony concluded for the day. Paulich will resume testimony tomorrow at 9 a.m. in Department 3. ..Source.. by Kevin N. Hume

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Trial in Lakeport sex offender's killing nears end

8-11-2012:

No one's denying Ivan Oliver stabbed a Lakeport neighbor 65 times after mistaking him for a convicted pedophile. The question about to be mulled by a Lake County jury is whether it was a case of premeditated murder, self defense or something in between.

During closing arguments Friday in the Lake County Superior Court trial, Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff told jurors the death is a clear case of first-degree murder.

He said Oliver went to Michael Dodele's mobile home with a knife and the intent to kill him. Oliver stabbed Dodele “over and over and over again” with enough force to fracture several ribs and vertebrae, he said.

“There was no way that was self defense. He was like a shark on a feeding frenzy,” Hinchcliff said.

He said Oliver, 34, killed Dodele, 67, in November 2007 because he hates child molesters and thought Dodele was a convicted pedophile after finding him on a Megan's Law sex registrant list. A confusing entry on the Megan's Law website was at the root of the mistake.

Dodele was convicted of raping multiple women in the 1970s and 1980s, not children. He'd served more than 20 years in prison for his crimes and had been released just a month before he was killed.

The misreading of the website led Oliver to think Dodele may have touched his 4-year-old son and to confront Dodele about the suspected incident, said defense attorney Stephen Carter. The attorney characterized Oliver as a doting, concerned father who was frantic with concern for his son's safety.

Recounting his client's trial testimony, Dodele said that when Oliver confronted Dodele, the older man became angry and tried to stab Oliver, he said.

Oliver was able to seize the knife and defend himself, Carter recounted. He said Oliver, eyes closed, “wildly” stabbed at Dodele. Oliver initially tried to cover up the crime but eventually admitted the slaying, according to court testimony.

Hinchcliff told jurors the self-defense scenario is implausible but Carter defended his client's story. He said Dodele was a dangerous man who had raped several women at knifepoint and was capable of using the weapon on another adult.

“Mr. Dodele lived by the knife and died by the knife,” Carter said.

Oliver also had experience with knives. He has a prior conviction for stabbing a security guard who confronted a group of Oliver's friends for leaving a Southern California restaurant without paying. He also is suspected of assaulting a young gay man the same day he killed Dodele.

Carter advised jurors to conclude that Oliver killed Dodele in self defense. At most, they should find him guilty of voluntary manslaughter, he said.

The jury will begin deliberations on Wednesday. In addition to murder, the counts they will be considering include a special allegation that Oliver used information from the Megan's Law sex offender registry to commit a felony, burglary, elder abuse and using a knife to commit a crime. ..Source.. by GLENDA ANDERSON

WA- Killings of 2 Bellingham sex offenders may have been by vigilante, police say

This documents one (Victor Vasquez) of the two deaths that night.

8-30-2005 Washington:

BELLINGHAM — Last Friday night, a man claiming to be an FBI agent dropped in on three Level 3 sex offenders living together, supposedly to warn them of an Internet "hit list" targeting sex offenders.

The man was not an FBI agent, but he may have been enforcing a hit list of his own creation.

Two of the roommates were found dead early Saturday of gunshot wounds, and Bellingham police are investigating a crime that authorities say may be one of the nation's most serious cases of vigilantism aimed at sex offenders.

The killings also highlight a potential problem about Washington's 1990 law requiring sex offenders to register their addresses so the public can keep track of them.

Bellingham Police Chief Randall Carroll said it is too early to conclude that Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68, were killed because they were sex offenders. Police released a sketch of the suspect, who is still at large.

Note: See what Vasquez's daughter has to say about her father's murder.

But Carroll noted that their address — and descriptions of their crimes — were posted on the city's Web site, and if someone used that information to target Eisses and Vasquez, it could have a broad impact.

"Certainly if sex offenders were targeted and attacked because of their offense, the Legislature could decide they could repeal our sex-offender notification law," Carroll said.

Eisses owned the house where the killings took place, and had rented rooms for the past three years to Vasquez and James Russell, 42.

Russell was there the night the suspect showed up, but he soon left to go to work. When he returned about 3 a.m., he told police, he found his roommates dead. Based on their estimated time of death, and the fact that Russell was at work, he is not considered a suspect, according to police. Results of an autopsy are expected later this week, Carroll said.

Vasquez was convicted in 1991 of molesting several relatives. According to court documents, his victims endured regular abuse, sexual and otherwise. He was on Department of Corrections supervision at the time of the murder.

Russell was convicted in 1994 of molesting a 3-year-old girl, and released from DOC supervision about three weeks ago after serving 5 ½ years in prison.

While the public is understandably concerned about sex crimes, Kit Bail, a DOC official, said the three men have been quiet, law-abiding offenders while living together. None of the three had violated supervision conditions, she said, and none had reoffended.

"In a sense, they are a success story," said Bail, the DOC's field supervisor for Whatcom County. "These guys were doing fine. They were employed. They were living according to the conditions."

The killings, she said, should "not be the basis on which we change the laws on registration, but if it is a vigilante act, it gives one pause. It gives me concern about other Level 3 sex offenders living responsibly — or even irresponsibly — in the community. Murder is not the response anywhere."

A fake FBI agent

Eisses was sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison in 1997 for raping a 13-year-old boy at his home in Sumas, near the Canadian border. He was released from DOC supervision about two years ago, Bail said.

He bought a blue house with a white picket fence in Bellingham's Columbia neighborhood — about a half-mile from a middle school — with the help of Theodore Kingma. In a brief interview, Kingma said he met Eisses at church. "He confessed his sins, and he lived right with God and the neighbors," said Kingma. "That's all I know."

It is unclear how Eisses met Russell and Vasquez. One of Russell's relatives said Russell's sex-offender status made it difficult to find a place to live until he moved in with Eisses.

According to police, Russell said a man wearing a blue jumpsuit and a hat with an FBI logo dropped by at about 9 p.m. on Friday to warn the trio of the alleged "hit list."

There were no FBI agents in the neighborhood that day, prompting the bureau to open an investigation of impersonation, said FBI spokeswoman Robbie Burroughs. The case does not qualify for federal hate-crime prosecution because the law does not appear to cover sex offenders, she said.

Too much information?

In response to a series of vicious sex crimes against children, Washington became the first state to require sex offenders to register their address upon release from prison. Level 3 offenders like Eisses, Vasquez and Russell, considered the most likely to commit a new crime, must register for life.

Since then, most states and the federal government have passed similar mandatory-notification laws.

A searchable, statewide database maintained by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs provides block-specific addresses for Level 2 and 3 offenders. Other municipalities — including Bellingham — go further by giving exact addresses.

That information has led some to take the law into their own hands. In 1993, Joseph Gallardo planned to move into his family's home in Lynnwood after serving about three years for the statutory rape of a 10-year-old girl.

The home was burned after neighbors heard of Gallardo's plan. He then planned to move to New Mexico but encountered fierce protests there. He returned to Lynnwood, where he still lives. He has not been convicted of another crime.

John La Fond, a lawyer who fought the notification law on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, said posting sex offenders' addresses "almost becomes a confession by the state that they cannot keep the society safe from harm, and invites society to take matters into its own hands."

In researching a 2005 book on notification laws, he found dozens of assaults and harassment against sex offenders. Eisses and Vasquez, he said, may be the first deaths.

Don Pierce, head of the police-chiefs association, said the case will renew the debate on publishing sex offenders' addresses.

"I think there are risks and this may prove to be an example of one of those risks," said Pierce. "I also think the public and Legislature have said there's a risk to the general public if they don't know with specificity where a sex offender lives." ..more.. by Mike Carter and staff researcher Miyoko Wolf contributed to this report.

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Police Say Idaho Case Inspired Sex Offenders' Killer

9-7-2005 National

SEATTLE -- The man who confessed to slaying two registered sex offenders in Bellingham told police that he was outraged by the recent case of Joseph Edward Duncan III, a convicted sexual predator being held in Idaho.

Michael Anthony Mullen, 36, made a brief court appearance Tuesday in Whatcom County Superior Court, about 80 miles north of here, after turning himself in to Bellingham police Monday afternoon.

A longtime resident of Whatcom County with a history of petty crimes, Mullen faces charges in the Aug. 26 shooting deaths of Hank Eisses, 49, and Victor Vasquez, 68. Both victims were Level III sex offenders, considered the most likely to commit similar crimes again. Mullen's arrest all but ended fears that a vigilante was on the loose targeting other registered sex offenders in the Bellingham area.

"It's a relief that he's not running around anymore with who-knows-what on his mind, probably more of the same," said Bellingham Mayor Mark Asmundson, who was informed of Mullen's arrest just minutes after it happened.

According to police, Mullen called 911 from a Bellingham restaurant and confessed to the murders. He was arrested and questioned for "hours and hours," said Bellingham police Lt. Craige Ambrose.

Investigators said Mullen provided details of the crime that only the killer would know, such as the caliber of the weapon and the way in which each victim was shot: once in the head. Ambrose said that during the interview Mullen repeatedly "came back around to the Idaho incident," referring to the Duncan case.

"Let's just say he was influenced by what happened there," Ambrose said. Duncan, a 42-year-old convicted sex predator from Tacoma, Wash., is in Kootenai County, Idaho, awaiting trial for the murders of four people and the kidnapping of two children in May near Coeur D'Alene. Duncan is being investigated in the deaths of other children across four states.

Less than two weeks after Duncan's case made national headlines, police said Mullen got on a Whatcom County Website that listed the names and addresses of all Level III sex offenders in the county.

Eisses and Vasquez lived with a third sex offender in a little green house on Northwest Avenue. According to earlier reports, the suspect had entered the victims' home, just north of downtown Bellingham, impersonating an FBI agent. The suspect told the men there was a "hit list" targeting sex offenders and that he was there to warn them.

The third man left for work with the suspect still in the house. When he returned home from work, the man found his housemates dead. Eisses had been convicted of child rape, Vaquez, of child rape and molestation. Both men had committed their crimes in Whatcom County.

On Aug. 31, five days after the murders, the Bellingham Herald received a letter from someone claiming responsibility for the killings and threatening to kill all other Whatcom County sex offenders designated as Level III. The county has 31 registered Level III offenders, including four in Bellingham, which has a population of 71,000.

Police said Mullen has confessed to sending the letter, and told investigators that more letters would soon be arriving at other media outlets. Ambrose said he did not know the content of those letters.

Ambrose said Mullen, a big man standing at 6-foot-5-inches and weighing nearly 250 pounds, had no known history of violence but had an extensive history of theft and other property crimes. Mullen had no permanent address, police said.

The slayings stirred debate over the 1990 state law requiring sex offenders to register their addresses. Washington was the first state to pass such a law, which is intended to help the public keep track of dangerous sexual predators. Congress mandated that states create registers of sex offenders. Now all 50 states have their own version of Washington's Community Protection Act.

Supporters say the public has a right to know about such offenders, but opponents argue that publicizing exact addresses invites vigilantism and prevents sexual offenders from leading normal lives. ..more.. by AP

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Sketchy details released on inmate death

9-15-2007 Washington

Michael Mullen, a Stafford Creek Corrections Center inmate who died in April, was determined to have died of pneumonia, but the manner of death is undetermined because “acute mild drug toxicity” is a contributing factor, according to Grays Harbor County Coroner Ed Fleming. Initially, the Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Department indicated they believed Mullen had committed suicide.

Mullen, from Bellingham, had an extensive law enforcement history, mostly involving minor crimes. But he was at Stafford Creek for the high-profile murder of two Level Three sex offenders, whom he found on a local sex offender registry Web site. He killed the two men after showing up at their home posing as an FBI agent, a ruse he said he used to confirm that the men were indeed sex offenders and to determine if they were sincerely repentant.

Fleming said Mullen had ingested prescription drugs, but the coroner would not say which drugs. “It’s a medical privacy issue,” he said. And he would not say whether the doses were therapeutic or not.

“There was enough medication, but not enough to cause the death directly,” Fleming said.

Instead, Fleming said, the immediate cause of death was lobar pneumonia, an illness in which an infection of the lungs causes them to fill with fluid, interfering with the body’s ability to absorb oxygen.

An official at the State Patrol, which handles the toxicology tests, said they were unable to discuss test results.

The Grays Harbor County Sheriff’s Office preliminarily believed Mullen, 37, had taken his own life, basing that on a lack of blunt force trauma and because of writings recovered from the dead man’s cell. Mullen was in the intensive management unit, where he did not have contact with other inmates.

Chad Lewis, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said the department was still putting the pieces together to figure out what led to Mullen’s death. An investigation is still under way, and the corrections department does not comment on open investigations, Lewis said.

Mullen died on the night of April 15, two hours after being found unresponsive in his cell. The prison’s Health Care Unit gave him first aid until emergency crews arrived. ..more.. by Callie White - Daily World Writer

Maine killings raise questions about sex offender registries

This documents one (Joseph Gray) of the two deaths that occurred. The story of the other sex offender murdered (William Elliott) is HERE

4-17-2006 Maine:

CORINTH, Maine --A man who shot two sex offenders to death in Maine got their names from the state's online sex offender registry, authorities said Monday. The killings renewed fears that such lists expose ex-convicts to vigilante violence.

The gunman, Stephen A. Marshall, a 20-year-old from Canada, committed suicide Sunday night in Boston after being cornered aboard a bus by police.

Investigators were uncertain what relationship, if any, Marshall had with the two victims, who were killed Easter Sunday morning at their homes 25 miles apart.

But the two men were among 34 names in five towns that Marshall had looked up on the state Web site, said Stephen McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety. Investigators said they discovered that he visited the Web site because he typed in his name to receive extra information online, including street addresses.

The Web site, which gets 200,000 hits a month, was disabled while police searched for Marshall but was restored Monday afternoon.

"The events of the weekend will obviously reviewed, but there are no plans to change the Web site at this point," McCausland said.

All states have sex offender registries designed to let people know of child molesters and other sex offenders in their midst.

Almost all of them, like Maine, post the information online.

But the killings added to a growing unease with such Web sites. Jack King from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Washington said making public sex offenders' addresses can be an invitation to violence.

Harassment, vandalism, assaults and even killings of sex offenders have been reported from coast to coast.

"There are going to be crazy people out there," King said. "And there's going to be vigilantism."

After New Jersey passed a public disclosure law on sex offenders in the 1990s, the brother of an offender was nearly beaten to death with a baseball bat when he was mistaken for his brother, King said.

In New Hampshire, Lawrence Trant went to prison after pleading guilty to the attempted murder of two convicted sex offenders whose names and addresses he found on an Internet registry posted by the state.

A sex offender Web site in Washington state was cited in the slayings of two convicted child rapists last summer. Michael Anthony Mullen, 35, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to more than 44 years in prison.

In Maine, the registered sex offenders who were shot to death were Joseph Gray, 57, of Milo, and William Elliott, 24, of Corinth.

Gray's wife, Janice, said that her and her husband's dogs started barking wildly at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday. When she looked out the window, she saw a figure dressed in a black jacket at the front door. A second later, she heard two shots and saw two flashes as bullets were fired through the front window.

She called her husband's name, but she got no response. "All I know is someone came to my house and took my husband from me," she said. "He was a very loving, good man."

Gray's name was posted on a state Web site because he had moved to Maine after a Massachusetts conviction for sexual assault on a child under 14, McCausland said. Elliott was convicted of having sex with an underage girl, he said.

When he shot himself, Marshall had with him a laptop computer along with two handguns, said Dave Procopio, spokesman for the Suffolk County, Mass., District Attorney's Office.

Marshall, a 20-year-old restaurant dishwasher from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, had come to Houlton, Maine, to visit his father, authorities said.

Investigators believe he used his father's pickup during the killings. The father had not realized his son and truck were missing, McCausland said. Marshall also took two handguns and a rifle from his father, the spokesman said.

Police tracked Marshall to Boston after finding his pickup abandoned along with the rifle in Bangor and then discovering bullets hidden in the tank of a toilet in a bus stop restroom were of the same caliber as one of his father's handguns.

Investigators believe a .45-caliber handgun Marshall turned on himself was the same one used in the Maine killings, McCausland said. The rifle, along with a .22-caliber handgun, were not fired, he said.

Marshall's father, Ralph Marshall, told reporters that his son didn't appear troubled and never said he had been sexually abused. He was confident investigators would get to the bottom of the case.

"Right now, everything seems to be about speculation," he said.

Maine's sex offender registry, which went online in December 2003, has the names of more than 2,200 sex offenders. It contains such information as the offender's name, address, date of birth, identifying characteristics and place of employment, as well as a photograph. Depending on the crime, the offender is required to register either for 10 years or for life.

In Washington state, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office posts a warning on its registry under the heading "Vigilantism -- Zero Tolerance," urging people not to use the information to harass offenders.

Carlos Cuevas from the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire said more research is needed into the effectiveness of sex offender registries. "Is it effective in lowering the rates of child victimization?" he asked.

In Maine, Gray and Elliott were shot about five hours apart. Neither man appeared to have caused a stir recently.

Gray and his wife moved a couple of years ago from Massachusetts to Milo, a town of about 2,400, said Kenny Hudak, a local police sergeant. Hudak said Gray had been reclusive.

In Corinth, residents were alerted when Elliott moved into a vinyl-sided trailer in the woods. The property was covered with trash, tires and at least a dozen junked vehicles.

"I think more people were concerned about the mess than him being a sex offender," said Mary Hadley, who lives across the road. ..more.. by Glenn Adams

Clash ends in stabbing by sword

5-14-2007 Florida: SEE UPDATE

A man confronts his wife and her new lover - sex offenders all - and it quickly turns deadly.

BRANDON - Willie Tarpley Jr. had just moved out of the home he shared with his estranged wife when he found her new lover in a sex offender database.

He was furious that she would allow the man near their two daughters, ages 3 and 14 months, said Lana Garcia, a neighbor and family friend.

About 8 p.m. Saturday, Tarpley, 46, drove to the posh Brandon home on River Rapids Avenue that he once shared with his wife, Jacqueline. He went into the garage, where, a neighbor said, he keeps a large collection of weapons.

He chose a 42-inch katana, a Japanese samurai sword, and went inside to confront Lee Alexander, a 25-year-old ranch hand from Polk County who was convicted in 2000 of a lewd and lascivious act on a person under 16.

Less than 15 minutes later, Alexander was dead.

- - -

Alexander, Jacqueline, her 14-month-old daughter and her mother, Matilda Dean, were inside the house when Tarpley entered, sword in hand.

Tarpley, 46, had lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident about 20 years ago, Dean said, but that hadn't stopped him from becoming a black belt martial arts expert.

Tarpley picked up his daughter, then menaced his wife with the sword, warning her not to defend Alexander, said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokeswoman Debbie Carter.

Then, while still holding his daughter, Tarpley held the sword against Alexander's throat and told him that if he didn't leave, he would cut off his head, Carter said.

Alexander went to his car in the garage, but in his panic to leave, he backed into Tarpley's Corvette, Garcia said.

At that point, Carter said, Tarpley, no longer holding his daughter, walked up and plunged his sword into Alexander through his open car window.

Tarpley told his ex-neighbor that he walked up to the car to demand Alexander's insurance information. Somewhere in the exchange he jabbed the sword toward Alexander to emphasize a point, Garcia said.

Alexander opened the car door and ran several feet before collapsing in the street.

At first, Tarpley laughed at his wife for dating a coward, but stopped laughing when he realized one of the jabs had killed the man, Garcia said.

Garcia added that Willie Tarpley seemed remorseful.

He lay facedown on the ground when he saw deputies arriving. Tears were streaming down his face as officers put him in the squad car, she said.

"He looked and me and said, 'Lana, I'm gone, I'm out of here, I did something wrong. I think I killed him.' "

- - -

Jacqueline Tarpley's mother said the couple had long planned to separate, though she wouldn't say why.

Court records revealed that the couple have a storied past.

Willie Tarpley pleaded guilty in 2006 to charges of domestic violence battery and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to Hillsborough County records.

Willie and Jacqueline Tarpley are both registered sex offenders. They both served prison sentences for the October 1987 sexual torture of a 21-year-old woman.

Police said Willie Tarpley and another man kidnapped the woman in Fort Lauderdale, drove her to a Tampa house and handcuffed her hands and feet.

The next day, Jacqueline Tarpley and another woman tortured the victim while Willie Tarpley watched, prosecutors charged.

Police called Tarpley the ringleader for the kidnapping, which was apparently revenge for the victim's theft of Willie Tarpley's possessions.

Jacqueline and Willie Tarpley both pleaded guilty to a long list of charges, including sexual battery, and received 20 years in prison.

They were released early, however, and in 2001 they also secured early release from probation.

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Alexander had dated Jacqueline Tarpley for months, her mother said.

Alexander was a teenager when he was convicted in 2000 of a lewd and lascivious act on a person under 16. The charge can apply to crimes including sex with a 15-year-old and fondling a 12-year-old.

He was sentenced to three months of community supervision, but no prison time.

Jacqueline Tarpley knew he was a registered sex offender, Garcia said, but he had persuaded her that he was not a pedophile.

The details of Alexander's Polk County conviction were not available late Sunday.

"He was very quiet, very nice, respectful, " she said. And, she added, he seemed to be good for Jacqueline.

"She's never been this happy, " Garcia said. ..more.. by MICHAEL A. MOHAMMED

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Man Gets 40 Years For Samurai Sword Murder
5-17-2008 Florida:

TAMPA - A man convicted of using a samurai sword to kill his estranged wife's boyfriend has been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Willie Tarpley Jr. faced 25 years to life for the second-degree-murder. Circuit Judge William Fuente said he took into account that the victim, 25-year-old Lee Alexander, was a sex offender – although he added that is no excuse for murder.

Tarpley was angered because Alexander was spending time with his children.

Tarpley, 47, and his wife are registered sex offenders as well.

On May 12, 2007, Tarpley drove to the house he once shared with Jacqueline Tarpley, grabbed a 42-inch samurai sword known as a katana and threatened to behead Alexander.

Alexander tried to flee in his car but struck Willie Tarpley's Corvette, which was parked in the driveway. Tarpley, prosecutors said, reached into the open car window and plunged the blade into Alexander's body, just below the armpit.

The Tarpleys had been married about 20 years.

At the sentencing hearing Friday, Alexander's relatives and friends told Fuente that they miss Alexander terribly.

Alexander's cousin, Christina Perez, questioned how Tarpley, a registered sex offender, could use Alexander's status as a sex offender as a reason to kill.

"I don't know how you can judge someone by something that you yourself was convicted of," she said.

Alexander's mother, Mary Perez Perryman, could not attend the hearing because she was too distraught, said Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Gabbard. She read a letter to the court, written by Perryman.

"I know we all must die," Perryman wrote. "But to be killed the way my son was killed is just unreal."

Alexander's sister, Raquel Alexander, addressed Tarpley directly, calling the killing "selfish."

"He was taken from us at the prime of his life, and you left behind his little daughter," she said. "You literally stole from her."

Several speakers today spoke on Tarpley's behalf, saying the violent man described by prosecutors is not the man they know.

Friend Lana Garcia described Tarpley as a level-headed person who always came to her aid when she needed help.

"You're a wonderful person," she said, looking toward Tarpley. "Don't ever let anyone tell you you are not."

Willie Tarpley III, 21, told Fuente that he only had known his father for the past 10 years and didn't want to lose him again.

"I'd really like the court to be lenient, because I miss him so much," he said. "I don't understand what happened that day, and I'm not here to judge."

Willie Tarpley Jr. served 10 years in prison, 1988 to 1998.

Tarpley and his wife were arrested in 1987 on charges that they abducted a woman they knew from Fort Lauderdale, drove her to Tampa and sexually abused her. They carved profanities into her forehead and used high-power glue to close her eyes. Both entered plea deals that included prison terms.

Tarpley was present for the abuse but did not actively participate, Assistant Public Defender Samantha Ward told the judge. She also pointed out that Alexander was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, whereas Tarpley's earlier victim was an adult. ..more.. by Thomas W. Krause

Maine killings raise questions about sex offender registries

This documents one (William Elliott) of the two deaths that occurred.

4-17-2006 Maine:

CORINTH, Maine --A man who shot two sex offenders to death in Maine got their names from the state's online sex offender registry, authorities said Monday. The killings renewed fears that such lists expose ex-convicts to vigilante violence.

The gunman, Stephen A. Marshall, a 20-year-old from Canada, committed suicide Sunday night in Boston after being cornered aboard a bus by police.

Investigators were uncertain what relationship, if any, Marshall had with the two victims, who were killed Easter Sunday morning at their homes 25 miles apart.

But the two men were among 34 names in five towns that Marshall had looked up on the state Web site, said Stephen McCausland of the Maine Department of Public Safety. Investigators said they discovered that he visited the Web site because he typed in his name to receive extra information online, including street addresses.

The Web site, which gets 200,000 hits a month, was disabled while police searched for Marshall but was restored Monday afternoon.

"The events of the weekend will obviously reviewed, but there are no plans to change the Web site at this point," McCausland said.

All states have sex offender registries designed to let people know of child molesters and other sex offenders in their midst.

Almost all of them, like Maine, post the information online.

But the killings added to a growing unease with such Web sites. Jack King from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Washington said making public sex offenders' addresses can be an invitation to violence.

Harassment, vandalism, assaults and even killings of sex offenders have been reported from coast to coast.

"There are going to be crazy people out there," King said. "And there's going to be vigilantism."

After New Jersey passed a public disclosure law on sex offenders in the 1990s, the brother of an offender was nearly beaten to death with a baseball bat when he was mistaken for his brother, King said.

In New Hampshire, Lawrence Trant went to prison after pleading guilty to the attempted murder of two convicted sex offenders whose names and addresses he found on an Internet registry posted by the state.

A sex offender Web site in Washington state was cited in the slayings of two convicted child rapists last summer. Michael Anthony Mullen, 35, pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to more than 44 years in prison.

In Maine, the registered sex offenders who were shot to death were Joseph Gray, 57, of Milo, and William Elliott, 24, of Corinth.

Gray's wife, Janice, said that her and her husband's dogs started barking wildly at about 3:30 a.m. Sunday. When she looked out the window, she saw a figure dressed in a black jacket at the front door. A second later, she heard two shots and saw two flashes as bullets were fired through the front window.

She called her husband's name, but she got no response. "All I know is someone came to my house and took my husband from me," she said. "He was a very loving, good man."

Gray's name was posted on a state Web site because he had moved to Maine after a Massachusetts conviction for sexual assault on a child under 14, McCausland said. Elliott was convicted of having sex with an underage girl, he said.

When he shot himself, Marshall had with him a laptop computer along with two handguns, said Dave Procopio, spokesman for the Suffolk County, Mass., District Attorney's Office.

Marshall, a 20-year-old restaurant dishwasher from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, had come to Houlton, Maine, to visit his father, authorities said.

Investigators believe he used his father's pickup during the killings. The father had not realized his son and truck were missing, McCausland said. Marshall also took two handguns and a rifle from his father, the spokesman said.

Police tracked Marshall to Boston after finding his pickup abandoned along with the rifle in Bangor and then discovering bullets hidden in the tank of a toilet in a bus stop restroom were of the same caliber as one of his father's handguns.

Investigators believe a .45-caliber handgun Marshall turned on himself was the same one used in the Maine killings, McCausland said. The rifle, along with a .22-caliber handgun, were not fired, he said.

Marshall's father, Ralph Marshall, told reporters that his son didn't appear troubled and never said he had been sexually abused. He was confident investigators would get to the bottom of the case.

"Right now, everything seems to be about speculation," he said.

Maine's sex offender registry, which went online in December 2003, has the names of more than 2,200 sex offenders. It contains such information as the offender's name, address, date of birth, identifying characteristics and place of employment, as well as a photograph. Depending on the crime, the offender is required to register either for 10 years or for life.

In Washington state, the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office posts a warning on its registry under the heading "Vigilantism -- Zero Tolerance," urging people not to use the information to harass offenders.

Carlos Cuevas from the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire said more research is needed into the effectiveness of sex offender registries. "Is it effective in lowering the rates of child victimization?" he asked.

In Maine, Gray and Elliott were shot about five hours apart. Neither man appeared to have caused a stir recently.

Gray and his wife moved a couple of years ago from Massachusetts to Milo, a town of about 2,400, said Kenny Hudak, a local police sergeant. Hudak said Gray had been reclusive.

In Corinth, residents were alerted when Elliott moved into a vinyl-sided trailer in the woods. The property was covered with trash, tires and at least a dozen junked vehicles.

"I think more people were concerned about the mess than him being a sex offender," said Mary Hadley, who lives across the road. ..more.. by Glenn Adams