Dad sentenced to death for murdering 3-month-old son (Galveston, Texas)

We've reported on killer dad TRAVIS JAMES MULLIS before. Seems a jury found this POS so devoid of human decency that they have sentenced him to the death penalty. This is rather unusual for a murdered baby, but then, this father seems especially depraved.

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

Galveston dad sentenced to death for murdering 3-month-old son
by Chris Paschenko/ The Daily News
khou.com
Posted on March 22, 2011 at 7:02 AM

GALVESTON, Texas — 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.