For the first time since Travis James Mullis was 9 months old, three members of his family came face to face with him Friday - in a courtroom where a jury is deciding whether Mullis should be executed for stomping his 3-month old son to death.
"I feel partially responsible for what's going on," said half-brother Michael Nicholson, 43, who made the decision to allow Mullis to be adopted by an uncle who sexually abused him and was later convicted. "The guilt will always be with me."
Nicholson, his sister, Mullis' aunt and a close friend of the family were the last witnesses to appear before the seven-woman, five-man jury in the penalty phase of Mullis' capital murder trial before state District Judge John Ellisor.
His long-lost relatives didn't know Mullis was still alive until a defense investigator discovered them about two months ago and told them about Mullis' troubled childhood and that he was about to be tried for sexually abusing and killing his son on Jan. 29, 2008.
Nicholson and the other relatives all pledged to visit Mullis at least twice a year in prison if the jury decides to spare his life and sentence him to life in prison without parole.
"He's family," Nicholson said about his decision to make the long journey from Kannapolis, N.C., every year to visit Mullis. "That's a small price to pay to be part of my brother's life."
Happy to reunite
All three said they knew what Mullis had done to earn his conviction of capital murder last week but nevertheless were glad to be back in touch with him.
Mullis' aunt, Denise Marie Devlin, 43, said she values Mullis' life despite what he has done. Asked why she agreed to travel from North Carolina to testify, she said, "Just to let people know that there are people around who love him."
Devlin and Mullis' 33-year-old half-sister, whose name is being withheld because she is a sexual abuse victim, wiped away tears as they told how they wanted to keep their brother in Kannapolis after his mother died but were overruled by Nicholson.
The said they never met Gary Mullis, their uncle, before he adopted Travis Mullis and only Devlin had seen him since, at her mother's funeral years later. None was aware of the sexual abuse Mullis suffered.
Testimony about abuse
But sexual abuse occurred in Travis Mullis' biological family as well, his sister testified. The sister said Mullis' biological father sexually abused her when she was 9, often several times a day, while she was living with Mullis' mother.
Dr. Richard G. Dudley Jr., a psychiatrist, testified that he had never seen a patient with so many psychological problems layered one upon the other.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...o/7478835.html
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