Whatcom County jury deadlocks in 2019 Baker Lake murder case; mistrial declared

A Whatcom County jury was unable to determine whether or not a Snohomish County man killed his friend in self-defense while they were camping near Baker Lake in April 2019.

A mistrial was declared late Friday, July 1, in 33-year-old Alexander Vanags’ criminal jury trial in Whatcom County Superior Court. Vanags had been on trial for second-degree murder for the April 13, 2019, death of 28-year-old Mark Stebakov of Arlington.

Vanags, of Arlington, had originally been scheduled to go to trial in March 2020, but his trial was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Vanags was later released from the Whatcom County Jail in July 2020 pending his trial after his bail was reduced from $1 million to $100,000.

After a three-week trial that began June 13, the jury was sent to deliberate on the second-degree murder charge by 11 a.m. on Thursday, June 30. During deliberations, the jury asked the court several written questions, including to replay the 911 audio recordings from when Vanags called law enforcement after returning from the campsite and whether or not a person could still feel their life is in danger if they are impaired, court records show.

Shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Friday, the jury sent the court a question asking how they would move forward if they could not reach a unanimous verdict and whether there was a time-frame in which they needed to reach a verdict by, according to court records. The jurors returned to the courtroom and told the judge they felt they could not reach a verdict in a reasonable amount of time. The judge sent them back to deliberate a while longer, before the jurors were brought back in to the courtroom.

When asked by the judge whether the jurors thought they might be able to reach a verdict if they were brought back on Tuesday after the holiday weekend to continue deliberating, the jurors all agreed that they were deadlocked and couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict on the murder charge, according to court officials.

Because of the hung jury, the judge declared a mistrial late Friday afternoon.

The Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office intends to pursue retrying the case later this year.

Closing arguments

During closing arguments last week, Vanags’ defense attorneys argued that the killing of Stebakov was justifiable homicide.

In order to be justifiable homicide, a person has to reasonably believe the person killed intended to inflict great personal injury or death, that there was an imminent danger of such harm being accomplished, and that the defendant used the force and means a reasonably prudent person would use under similar conditions, according to court records.

Vanags’ attorneys, James Dixon and Jennifer Cannon-Unione, said Vanags and Stebakov were excited to go camping with one another at a rural site near Baker Lake. The pair planned to take LSD together while camping and had been texting about the upcoming trip. Dixon and Cannon-Unione said Stebakov attacked Vanags after the pair had taken LSD at the campsite and that Vanags acted in self-defense.

Dixon said there were physical abrasions and evidence on Vanags that showed he had been in a fight with Stebakov. Dixon said Vanags hit Stebakov with the machete until Stebakov stopped attacking him.

Dixon said the prosecution had no motive in the case for why Vanags would kill Stebakov and that the prosecution had not even come close to disproving Vanags acted in self-defense.

Cannon-Unione said Vanags had pleaded with Stebakov to drink water, to leave him alone and to leave the campsite before the two got into a physical fight and Vanags used the machete to defend himself.

“It was a final last resort. Mark was acting crazy, possessed, unstoppable and he continued to attack him. He believed he was going to die,” Cannon-Unione said. “He had no reason to kill his friend. Once Mark stopped coming, Alex stopped.”

But senior deputy prosecuting attorney Kellen Kooistra said Vanags’ actions were not what a reasonable person would do in a similar situation.

Kooistra said Vanags hit Stebakov more than a dozen times with a machete, killing him, and argued that the evidence left at the campsite showed Vanags didn’t just act in self-defense. Kooistra argued text messages, photos and videos showed the pair took acid around 8:30 p.m. and by 11:28 p.m. that April 2019 evening, Vanags had killed Stebakov.

Kooistra said after Stebakov died, Vanags moved things around the campsite and took pictures and videos, including of Stebakov’s body. Kooistra said Vanags stayed at the campsite with his dead friend for more than an hour before finally leaving.

Kooistra said when Vanags made it back into cell service, he first called his mother, who didn’t pick up. Vanags then called his friend and they had a conversation and afterward, called his wife and had a conversation with her. Kooistra said Vanags didn’t call 911 until 2:11 a.m., which was more than 2½ hours after Stebakov died.

Kooistra argued that Vanags had an intent to kill Stebakov based on the number of wounds on Stebakov’s body and the number of times Vanags swung a machete at his friend’s head.

“When you analyze the injuries, the facts, Vanags’ testimony and claims about what occurred, there’s simply no way by his actions that this killing was justified,” Kooistra said. “We can’t prove how it started, but we don’t have to. It ended with Alex inflicting over a dozen machete hits on Mark’s body, repeatedly hitting him in the neck until he was dead. ... There’s simply no way what Alex did was reasonably prudent. It was not justifiable, it was intentional killing.”