ALIJAH MULLIS - 3 Months (2008) - Galveston TX

Jurors cry after seeing photos of child’s body



Credit: Galveston County Daily News

Jurors cry after seeing photos of child’s body

khou.com

March 8, 2011 at 9:55 AM

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GALVESTON, Texas — Police photographs of a baby boy’s lifeless body, lying in the grass with his tiny head fractured and face splotched with blood, brought tears to the eyes of jurors sitting in judgment of the boy’s father.

Testimony began Monday in the capital murder trial of Travis James Mullis, 24.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

Prosecutors showed the jury photographs of 3-month-old Alijah Mullis, whose Jan. 29, 2008, slaying resulted in a capital murder charge against Mullis, the boy’s father.

When Judge John Ellisor asked Mullis how he would plead, Mullis answered, "not guilty, capital murder."

Robert K. Loper, one of Mullis’ attorneys, told jurors his client isn’t guilty of capital murder, saying Mullis didn’t intentionally cause his son’s death.

Mullis also was indicted on an accusation he committed or attempted to commit aggravated sexual assault of his child, but prosecutors abandoned the charge at trial, saying if there is a punishment hearing, the evidence would be presented then.

911 Tape, ‘Chilling, Traumatizing’

Jesse Zaro and his wife found the boy’s body while looking for wildlife.

Prosecutor Donna Cameron played the audiotape of Zaro calling police.

"It’s chilling, traumatizing," Cameron told a jury of seven women and five men in the 122nd District Court.

Zaro testified he and his wife drove to Galveston’s far East End and stopped atop a berm, partly constructed of concrete. Zaro first thought an object in the grass was a doll.

"I saw it just lying here with a blue Pamper on," Zaro said. "I can’t believe this — somebody would do something like this. Oh, my God! It’s a baby!"

Zaro said that remembering the occasion "hurt his heart."

"I looked down, and something hit my heart, like all the wind just left me," Zaro said. "It was the horror, man."

Alijah’s Injuries ‘Graphic’

Police found Alijah wearing only in a diaper on a cool, breezy January morning. Officers found one tiny, blue sock and the boy’s car seat nearby.

Then Galveston police Sgt. Richard Kershaw, who now works for the state attorney general, found Alijah’s body face down in the grass.

The photographs show Alijah’s mouth open, his eyes were closed. Blood appeared to have settled to one side of his face, which also had visible bruises. His arms rested beside his head, and there was an inch deep and 3 inches in diameter impression beneath his fair-colored hair.

At least two of the female jurors frequently wiped tears from their eyes as Cameron displayed what she called "graphic" crime-scene photographs of Alijah on a projector.

Alijahalso had two square patterns on his skull. Upcoming testimony is expected to connect those marks to the pattern of a shoe.

Ants Found On Boy’s Body

Cameron read aloud for the jury a report from a Galveston ambulance crew, describing Alijah’s condition.

An emergency medical technician reported Alijah’s skin was pale and there were ants on him.

The medical examiner will testify Alijah died of blunt-force trauma. His skull shattered like an egg shell, Cameron said.

"He died instantly, because of the devastating nature of those injuries," Cameron said.

Former Galveston officer Jeremy Schwartz, who has since taken a job with the FBI, was the lead detective on the scene. He was the third and final witness called by prosecutors Monday.

Police Learn Boy’s Identity

Schwartz learned the boy’s identity after his mother, Caren Kohberger, who was Mullis’ girlfriend, called the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office, asking about her son.

Schwartz and other officers drove to Alvin to interview Kohberger and search the home, where nine people — four adults and five children — lived in a three-bedroom mobile home.

The mobile home was owned by acquaintances of Mullis and Kohberger.

Prosecutors showed jurors photographs of the untidy room Mullis, Kohberger and Alijah shared with two boys, their acquaintance’s children.

Alijah had no crib, and he slept in his car seat, Schwartz said.

Schwartz didn’t tell Kohberger what happened to Alijah. He knew the boy he found on the seawall was her child after seeing a photograph at the home.

Schwartz also found inside the home a single, blue infant’s sock similar
to the one found at the seawall. He also saw similar diapers there.

Mullis’ Video Statement To Come Last

Authorities began searching for Mullis and Kohberger’s car. In previous court hearings, prosecutors showed Ellisor a video of Mullis’ Feb. 1 statement to Philadelphia homicide investigators. Prosecutors intend to play the video on direct examination of their final witness.

The Daily News was present in court in January when prosecutors played the video in which Mullis described in vivid detail the last day of his son’s life. The judge ruled the video was admissible at trial.

Mullis told police he reached a breaking point because he feared eviction when the woman who owned the mobile home learned of an encounter he had with her daughter.

Mullis is charged in Brazoria County with enticing a child in relation to that encounter. Mullis denies the allegation.

Mullis argued with Kohberger about the encounter and left with Alijah. He drove to Galveston, according to the video statement.

Mullis Describes Alijah’s Death

Consumed with stress, Mullis told police on videotape, "the only way to make him stop crying was to kill him."

Mullis put his hands around Alijah’s throat and applied pressure with his thumbs, he said in the video.

"I heard him begin to gurgle," Mullis said. "I let go of him, and he cried even more."

Mullis then told police he put his son on the concrete part of the berm and stomped on Alijah’s head three or four times until he felt the child’s skull collapse under his shoe.

Using a tissue box to represent Alijah’s head, Mullis demonstrated the force he used for Philadelphia police.

Mullis grabbed the boy’s car seat and threw it. He then grabbed Alijah by the feet and threw him in the same direction.

"I (had to) get it away from me," Mullis said. "I was scared of it."

Mullis, in the video, said he left Galveston and drove to the East Coast, relying on the kindness of strangers and churches for travel money.

Defense: Mullis Didn’t Possess Intent

If convicted of capital murder, Mullis faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors also have announced their intention to seek the death penalty in the case.

Loper disagreed with one of the state’s assertions. Mullis didn’t intend to kill his son, Loper said. Intent is one of the prerequisites the prosecution would have to prove for a capital murder conviction.

"Is that really what he meant?" Loper asked. "It’s not that you won’t hold him accountable for his actions, but if the evidence creates reasonable doubt of what he meant to do when he did what he did on the seawall, (then) it will result in you folks coming back with a verdict of not guilty for capital murder."

The prosecution intends to call as many as 12 witnesses and could rest by Thursday.

This story was brought to you thanks to khou.com’s partnership with The Galveston County Daily News.

Attorneys for a Southeast Texas man
convicted of capital murder in the 2008 death of his 3-month-old son are
trying to spare him from death row. Prosecutors are seeking
the death penalty against for 24-year-old Travis James Mullis of Alvin
for the sexual assault and stomping death of his son, Alijah. Jurors'
only alternative is life imprisonment without parole. The punishment phase of his trial continues Thursday. Passers-by found the child's diaper-clad body on a remote berm near Galveston's East Beach.Police
have said Mullis admitted to stomping on Alijah's head to stop him from
crying. Test samples show the boy had been sexually assaulted first.
Defense attorneys are trying to show Mullis was the product of an
extremely dysfunctional family background rife with neglect and sexual
abuse.

http://www.ktxs.com/texas_news/27224850/detail.html

A convicted child killer should be put to death, a jury decided Monday
in the county’s first death penalty hearing since the mid-1990s.

The jury of seven women and five men that convicted Travis James Mullis
on March 11 of capital murder in the stomping death of his 3-month-old
son, Alijah, deliberated about three hours before reaching a unanimous
decision in favor of the death penalty.

The man called a monster by prosecutors took his infant son from his
Alvin mobile home to an isolated berm near Galveston’s East Beach in the
early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2008.

Evidence in the punishment hearing revealed Mullis, 24, sexually assaulted Alijah before killing him.

Sightseers found Alijah clad in a diaper and called police.

Mullis fled to the East Coast and surrendered Feb. 1, 2008, to
Philadelphia police. He confessed in a videotaped police interview to
stomping on Alijah until he felt the infant’s skull collapse. Mullis
said it was the only way to stop the infant from crying.

Mullis faced either life in prison without parole or death. Jurors
considered two special issues: Whether Mullis is a continuing threat to
society and whether there were sufficient mitigating circumstances to
make death unjust.

Prosecutor: Mullis A ‘Monster’

First Assistant Prosecutor Donna Cameron in her closing statements drew
on the words of Jesse Zaro, the man who was sightseeing with his wife
and found Alijah. Zaro called 911, saying he couldn’t believe someone
would inflict such an injury on a child.

"What kind of person gratifies his own sexual needs with his 3-month-old
son and then stomps on his head until death?" Cameron asked the jury.

Cameron then reminded the jury of the words of Alijah’s maternal
grandmother, Carolyn Entriken, and of how Alijah’s slaying affected her
family.

"She said it’s hard to believe that there’s such evil that exists,"
Cameron said. "That monster is sitting right here in this courtroom, and
his name is Travis Mullis."

Defense attorneys Robert K. Loper and Gerald Bourque reminded the jury
that Mullis was a victim of repeated sexual abuse by his adoptive
father.

Mullis suffered from a multitude of mental disorders from an early age.
He spent three years as a teen at a sex offender’s rehabilitation facility in Maryland.

"Maybe you think this guy deserves so much to die," Loper said. "You shouldn’t hate him. You should pity him."

Bourque told the jurors Mullis didn’t belong in society and asked jurors to let his client spend life in prison.

"Let him die by whatever cause and not carry his blood on your hands," Bourque said.

Cameron reminded the jury of testimony from a defense psychiatrist who said Mullis didn’t belong in society.

‘You Can’t Fix Him’

"You can’t fix him," Cameron said. "You can’t medicate him. There is no treatment and nothing you can do about the evil he is."

Mullis manipulated everyone he knew. He is a user, Cameron said, noting other children who were victims of Mullis’ molestation.

"The defendant deserves death for everything he’s done for every victim
in his life," Cameron said. "For the grandchild Carolyn Entriken will
never know — for the beautiful baby that was helpless at the hands of a
monster."

Loper agreed that Mullis is a monster but said he posed no future threat
to anyone in prison. His troubled childhood and multiple mental
disorders also provided sufficient mitigating circumstances to avoid a
death sentence, Loper said.

Bourque told the jury Mullis doesn’t know what it means to connect.
Bourque grabbed a large binder and grasped it against his chest.

"There is no greater feeling than to have a child right there and really
not want to let go," Bourque said. "You know what I’m talking about. He
doesn’t know that."

Mullis Was ‘Judge, Jury And Executioner’

Special Prosecutor Lyn McClellan told the jury Mullis was a coldblooded
killer and that there were no judicial safeguards for Alijah.

"Travis was, for Alijah, judge, jury and executioner," McClellan said.

The jury in Judge John Ellisor’s 122nd District Court in Galveston that sentenced Mullis was one juror short.

Ellisor removed a female juror from the death penalty hearing on an allegation of juror misconduct.

The defense team asked Ellisor to declare a mistrial in the punishment phase and impose a sentence of life without parole.

Ellisor ordered juror No. 8 removed and to be replaced by another woman, who was one of the two alternates.

It is unclear whether the instance stemmed from another defense attorney
not connected with the case, who last week overheard jurors on Mullis’
case talking during a cigarette-smoking break.

Attorney Lynette Briggs told the judge last week that she believed she
heard some kind of discussion, but she wasn’t sure what she heard.

http://www.khou.com/news/local/Dad-sentenced-to-death-for-murdering-3-month-old-son-118421584.html

Mullis wants to appeal sentence

By Chris Paschenko, The Daily News
Published September 13, 2012

As the state prepares to set an execution date for Travis James Mullis, the man condemned for stomping the life from his infant son, has had a change of heart and wants to appeal his death sentence.

Mullis, 25, had adamantly opposed appealing his March 2011 capital murder conviction in the Jan. 29, 2008, death of his son, Alijah, who was 3 months old, in Galveston. But a letter Mullis wrote Aug. 20 from death row says he wants to appeal the verdict — even though he missed the July 2 deadline for an appeal.

In September 2011, Mullis said he accepted the consequences and had a religious and moral belief of an eye for an eye. The punishment was justified for the crime, he said in a jailhouse interview with The Daily News.

Mullis waived the appeal of his death sentence from Judge John Ellisor’s 122nd District Court, a pro se waiver affirmed in April by the state’s highest appeals court. Any death sentence, however, results in an automatic appeal, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reviewed trial transcripts and found no error.

“New evidence has surfaced that was not available at the time I chose to waive my appeal. I hereby request that this court reinstate my appeal and appoint counsel to help me with this appeal,” Mullis’ letter to Ellisor states.

The letter doesn’t give details on the new evidence, but Mullis wrote he would discuss it on the record in court.

Mullis wrote that the decision to waive an appeal was based on misleading and incomplete information.

The appeals court issued an order Wednesday after evaluating Mullis’ letter and the proceedings so far in the case. The court determined that all deadlines for appeals had passed, Galveston County Criminal District Attorney Jack Roady said.

The court also held that if Mullis or an attorney on his behalf wanted to file an application for writ of habeas corpus, then it would have to show “good cause” for missing the deadline, Roady said.

Roady has been in regular contact with Mullis’ last appointed habeas counsel, Brad Levenson, with the state Office of Capital Writs.

“We are still communicating about (Wednesday’s) order by the Court of Criminal Appeals,” Roady said. “I anticipate that in the near future, I will be asking the trial court to proceed with scheduling the execution date.”

http://galvestondailynews.com/story/347286