Alaska News

Man accused of killing Genghis Muskox released on bail

An Anchorage doctor's 30-year-old son accused in a Dec. 5 murder in Cooper Landing is to be released from jail on $1 million bail. Kenai Superior Court Judge Charles Huguelet made the ruling Wednesday in the case of Paul Vermillion, a disabled veteran of the Iraq war.

The unemployed Vermillion was living in his family's Kenai Lake summer home at the time he killed his friend Genghis Muskox there.

Vermillion was subsequently charged with first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and manslaughter. He has pleaded not guilty. Authorities have offered no possible motive for Muskox's alleged murder.

Cooper Landing residents say Muskox and Vermillion were drinking buddies. It is believed they were drinking on the night Muskox was shot to death. Lawyers for Vermillion have said he killed Muskox in self-defense.

Some in Cooper Landing say Muskox, 27, could be argumentative when drinking and once reportedly got into a tussle with a local cook that got Muskox kicked out of a Cooper Landing restaurant. But there are no records of any serious violence on his part.

Along with setting a $1 million bail -- $100,000 of which was required in cash -- on Wednesday, Huguelet ordered that Vermillion be fitted with a GPS-tracking ankle monitor and stay with a third-party custodian in Houston, Alaska, a small community along the George Parks Highway about 125 miles north of Anchorage.

Vermillion was told he is not permitted to go near the Anchorage airport or stray from a broad area generally north of Wasilla except to visit the Veterans Administration hospital near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson for medical or psychological treatments.

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Asked about the conditions of his release and to swear that he lacked a passport, Vermillion several times told the judge in a subdued, polite voice, "Yes, your honor."

Gregory Thompson, a friend of Vermillion's parents, has offered to serve as third-party custodian. A retired airline mechanic, he told the court he'd known the Vermillion family for years and likes Paul.

Cooper Landing residents universally describe Paul as a likable guy, but an acquaintance of both Vermillion and Muskox told Alaska Dispatch that because of injuries Vermillion suffered in Iraq he is on anti-seizure medications that should not be mixed with booze. Vermillion was twice the victim of improvised explosive devices in Iraq.

Huguelet told Vermillion that another condition of his release is that he cannot drink. If he is caught doing so, he could be immediately sent back to jail.

Despite being on medication, Vermillion reportedly drank regularly while in Cooper Landing and was often armed, according to people who knew both men. Muskox's mother, Minnesotan Susan Muskat, said that since her son's death the family has learned that Genghis apparently died after being first attacked with an ice ax and then shot.

An affidavit from Alaska State Troopers filed in the Kenai court says Vermillion called them at just before 2 a.m. to say "I killed somebody. I was being being beat up. I didn't know what to do ... not sure how I killed him. He's dead on the floor.''

Troopers who arrived on the scene, according to the affidavit, reported Muskox "was obviously deceased from what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the head. A search of the scene revealed the deceased had suffered "multiple gunshot wounds, including at least two in the head while the victim had been lying on the floor."

Troopers described Vermillion as wearing shoes and clothing splattered with dried blood and bits of flesh. The affidavit mentions no wounds to Vermillion.

Questioned by a trooper, the affidavit says Vermillion declared, "'I was in a fight to the death, and I executed the threat.' When asked does that mean you killed Genghis Muskox, Vermillion stated 'yes.'"

There have been persistent rumors in Cooper Landing that Vermillion suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, but those have not been confirmed.

Muskox's family had opposed bail. Muskox's mother, Susan, and father, John Cox, are of the opinion Vermillion is mentally unstable. Anti-war activists from Minnesota, they believe Vermillion was left psychologically damaged by his service in Iraq.

In a lengthy series of articles in 2008 titled "War Torn," the New York Times reported on a tiny but significant number of cases wherein it appeared veterans returning from Iraq had suffered psychological damage that "set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction."

The Times said it was troubling to find cases "where a previously upstanding young man -- there is one woman among the 121 -- appears to have committed a random act of violence." And The Times' analysis showed that the overwhelming majority of these young men, unlike most civilian homicide offenders, had no criminal history.

"When they've been in combat, you have to suspect immediately that combat has had some effect, especially with people who haven't shown these tendencies in the past," said Robert Jay Lifton, a lecturer in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School/Cambridge Health Alliance who used to run "rap groups" for Vietnam veterans and fought to earn recognition for what became known as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

"'Everything is multicausational, of course,' Dr. Lifton continued. 'But combat, especially in a counterinsurgency war, is such a powerful experience that to discount it would be artificial.'"

Dispatch interviews with dozens of people paint Vermillion as one of those "upstanding young men" almost until the moment of tragedy in Cooper Landing.

Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com.

Craig Medred

Craig Medred is a former writer for the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska Dispatch and Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2015.

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