WALTFREDO DAVIS-MULLEN - 4 yo (2009) (and his Mother) - Dale SC

Police have arrested the boyfriend of a South Carolina woman who was killed with her 4-year-old son earlier this month.
The Beaufort Gazette reported 27-year-old Earnest Stewart Daise was charged
Monday with two counts of murder and one count of assault and battery with intent to kill.
Thirty-four-year-old Jeanine Mullen and 4-year-old Waltfredo Davis-Mullen were found shot to death at their
home on Nov. 15 in Dale. Two-year-old Jeremiah Daise was shot and injured.
Earnest Stewart Daise has been in custody on drug charges since Nov. 16. It was unclear if he had an attorney.
The woman and children were found by her father and her two older children who were returning from an afternoon outing.

Dale man accused of killing girlfriend, 4-year-old boy, faces death penalty
Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Ernest Stewart Daise, charged with killing his girlfriend and her 4-year-old son and wounding the couple's 2-year-old son during a shooting in Dale in 2009.

During a hearing Monday, 14th Judicial Circuit Solicitor Duffie Stone explained theaggravating circumstances that qualify it as a capital case: Daise is accused of killing two or more people and killing a child 11 years old or younger.

Daise, 28, is accused of shooting to death his girlfriend Jeanine Mullen, 34, and her son Waltfredo-Davis Mullen at their home on Player Road on Nov. 15, 2009. Daise also is accused of shooting his son, who also was Mullen's child, during the incident. The boy, who was 2 at the time, survived after treatment at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Mullen was a single mother of four and a kindergarten teaching assistant at Shanklin Elementary School.

Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and appearing before Circuit Judge D. Craig Brown in the Beaufort County Courthouse, Daise did not enter a plea and was appointed two lawyers for his defense -- county Chief Public Defender Trasi Campbell, who has represented Daise since November 2009, and Sam Bauer of Hilton Head Island.



Read more: http://www.islandpacket.com/2011/01/24/1522655/dale-man-accused-of-killing-girlfriend.html#ixzz1IqgLFrED

Earnest Daise found guilty in Dale double-murder trial

By MATT McNAB (mmcnab@beaufortgazette.com)
October 17, 2013

Only after leaving the courtroom did Jeanine Mullen's family celebrate the verdict with tears and hugs.

They had waited nearly four years for Earnest Daise to stand trail for the murder of Mullen and her 4-year-old son; they waited about three hours Oct. 17, 2013, for a jury of seven men and five women to convict him.

"It's really rough when you're dealing with the innocence and death of child," said Jerry Green of Beaufort, a cousin of the second murder victim, Mullen's son Waltfredo Davis-Mullen. "I thought it was a good verdict."

Davis-Mullen was killed Nov. 15, 2009 -- his fourth birthday.

Daise, 31, also was convicted of assault and battery with intent to kill his son. Jeremiah Daise, 2 at the time, was shot through the ear but survived his father's attack.

Next, the jury will decide whether Daise gets the death penalty or life in prison without parole. Circuit Court Judge Carmen Mullen, who is not related to the victim, scheduled the trial's sentencing phase to being Monday.

In addition to two charges of first-degree murderand assault and battery with intent to kill, Daise was convicted Thursday of trafficking crack cocaine and possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

The defense made closing arguments Thursday morning, and Judge Mullen sent the jury to deliberate at about 12:30 p.m. Verdicts were reached shortly after 3 p.m. and read in the Beaufort County Courthouse at 3:30 p.m.

Daise was silent when the verdict was read; he showed no emotion.

Relatives of both Mullen and Daise were in the courtroom, as well, and also remained silent.

Outside the courtroom, Mullen's family cried, hugged and showed relief.

Daise's family members declined to comment. Most of Mullen's family did, as well.

Green was in the courtroom for the first time Thursday and departed "very satisfied" with the conviction. He said he knew Jeanine Mullen for seven years before her death.

"I miss her smile," he said. "She was always friendly. She's resting now and in a better place. Someday we'll all get to see her again."

Read more here: http://www.islandpacket.com/2013/10/17/2742595/closing-arguments-made-in-daise.html#storylink=cpy

Earnest Daise Sentenced To Life Without Parole

Posted: Oct 22, 2013 5:15 PM CDT
Updated: Dec 04, 2013 9:15 PM CST
By Ashleigh Holland

BEAUFORT COUNTY, S.C. - After spending weeks in a courtroom, Earnest Daise will go back behind bars for life.

Daise was convicted of shooting his girlfriend, Jeanine Mullen, and her son Waltfredo. Solicitor Duffie Stone pursued the death penalty.

"Every time we declare the death penalty, we have to recognize that it is a long, very difficult battle," Stone says. "If you put it all together, it's very clear that Earnest Daise was the right man, and he was the killer."

In his closing arguments at the sentencing Wednesday, Stone showed the jury pictures of Mullen and her child at the scene of their death. They are images Mullen's father experienced when he found his daughter on that November night in 2009.

"Those pictures are gruesome because it was a gruesome crime, and it was a fraction of what Frank Mullen had to live through," Stone says.  

However, the defense says it was a bad childhood that drove Daise to kill. They told jurors stories of abandonment and addiction.

"We were able to dig all of that out of his family, because they didn't want to talk about it either," says Micah Leddy, one of Daise's attorneys.

That's why he thinks the jury let Daise live.

"We were able to put it in front of the jury, and I think that's why we were able to get the result that we did," Leddy says.  

As for Daise, "he's very relieved, I think, and rightfully so," Leddy says.  

"I think the most important thing is that Earnest Daise will spend the rest of his life in prison. And with this verdict today, he'll do that, he will die in prison. There's no possibility of parole," Solicitor Stone says.  

As for Daise's family, "they said thank you, thank you for working so hard, and God bless you," says Leddy.  

Read more: http://www.wsav.com/story/23761203/sentencing-for-ernest-daise-double-murder-case-continues