Court documents provide new insight into beating of unhoused man left at Curt Gowdy State Park
Jan. 16—CHEYENNE — The man who was found severely beaten at Curt Gowdy State Park last year — and who later died from his injures — was killed as the result of a drunken altercation, court documents indicate.
Stacey "Jason" Mullen, 50, was found at the park on Aug. 20 with severe injuries, described by doctors in a probable cause affidavit obtained by the Wyoming Tribune Eagle as "one of the worst brain bleeds he had ever seen." He was transferred to Swedish Medical Center in Colorado within a day of arriving at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center.
A doctor at Swedish Medical Center told detectives that Mullen had "significant internal injuries," bleeding in and around his brain, and multiple brain hemorrhages. He also had a breastbone fracture and three fractured ribs. Doctors attributed these injures to "blunt force trauma consistent with physical assault," and his death was ruled a homicide by a coroner.
Until earlier this month, the identities of those suspected of beating Mullen were unknown. Two people were arrested by the Laramie County Sheriff's Office last week, Russell Perry and Gizelle Kellum. Probable cause affidavits filed in Laramie County Circuit Court provide new information into what happened to Mullen, and why he was beaten.
Perry is facing a voluntary manslaughter charge, and Kellum is facing an accessory after the fact charge in connection with the beating. Court documents also revealed that the two are married.
When the victim was originally transported to CRMC, law enforcement reached out to Kellum, who Mullen kept as his emergency contact. They spoke to her the day Mullen was found. Kellum told detectives that she and Perry frequently needed to take Mullen to CRMC due to a substance-use disorder with alcohol.
That same day, LCSO reached out to the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation with information on Mullen's exact location when he was found at the park. DCI officials began to look into any records of a cellphone going off in the area around the time of Mullen's beating.
DCI returned with information in early October, presenting LCSO with phone records that showed a shared phone by Kellum and Perry making a call in that area the night Mullen was left there.
As the investigation went on, law enforcement spoke with the pair several times. The two were frequently contacted in the parking lot of Walmart on Livingston Avenue, where they would park their car and often stay.
On one occasion, Kellum told detectives she and Mullen would "drive around and drink." It took several attempts for law enforcement to get a detailed story about what they did with Mullen the night of his beating, with the couple eventually telling detectives that they had found the man lying in the grass in downtown Cheyenne.
The couple picked him up and took him through the drive-through of the Eagle's Nest bar, where they initially told detectives that he left for the Ames Avenue underpass at around 7 p.m. They said they drove around for much of the evening, before returning to the Walmart parking lot. Surveillance footage obtained by detectives, they say, later disproved this claim.
When confronted with the video evidence and the cell tower records, Kellum seemed to partially confess to detectives.
"I asked Kellum why her phone was pinging out by Curt Gowdy State Park," LCSO Detective Benjamin Delcamp wrote in his probable cause affidavit.
"Probably because we were out there," Delcamp quoted Kellum as saying in his report. "Oh shit! I can't do this no more."
She revealed that Perry, Mullen and she had decided to go on a drive and decided to head west. They were also drinking, she indicated. While on the drive, Mullen began to attack Perry, they claimed.
Perry told detectives that he pulled over and "roughed (Mullen) up," and then placed him in a blanket and put him in the bed of his truck. While Perry claimed that was the extent of his assault on the man, Kellum told detectives that her husband "knocked out" Mullen.
Perry speculated to detectives that Mullen was not "really there," and did not know where he was when he attacked Perry, an attack that he claimed was unprovoked.
The couple later drove westbound on Interstate 80 and took the south entrance to Curt Gowdy State Park. It is unclear from court documents if Mullen suffered any injuries when he was left in the truck bed.
When the couple decided to leave the park, they noticed Mullen was no longer in the truck bed. They said they drove around the park for roughly 90 minutes, trying to locate him, but couldn't find him.
As of an Oct. 19 interview with detectives, Perry had not learned that Mullen had died, Delcamp wrote.
Perry and Kellum will both have a preliminary hearing in Laramie County Circuit Court on Friday.
Samir Knox is the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's criminal justice and public safety reporter. He can be reached by email at sknox@wyomingnews.com or by phone at 307-633-3152. Follow him on Twitter at @bySamirKnox.
