Alijah James Mullis
October 29, 2007 - January 29, 2008
Kind strangers dropped off flowers and stuffed animals
at the site of
a memorial where the body of a baby was found:
"I pray for the baby's soul. I pray for the
person
who done this to this baby to come to justice,"
Stephanie Lyons.
"You can take them to the hospital. You don't
have
to put them out on the side of the road,"
Rhonda Benthin.
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On January 29, 2008, a couple was driving
down the road in Texas looking for birds and coytoes.
Jesse Zaro and his wife Esmeralda saw something
that looked odd to them, on the side of the road. At first, they thought
it might be a |
doll since feet and hands were visiblefrom the car.
When Jesse got out of the car to see what it was, he was shocked to see
that it was a baby and the baby was dead. Detecitives arrived on the scene
was taped off and after they called 911, they were made aware of the fact
that there
was a woman named Caren Kohberger had been calling
hospitals to check if her son and boyfriend, Travis Mullis had been admitted.
Several hours prior to the finding of body of Alijah
James Muillis, his
father, Travis Mullis was awake earlier than anyone
else in his home.
He wasn't the only one awake, there was an eight
year old little girl
who was also awake. He asked her if she would like
to go to the play
ground and she said yes. Travis took the girl to
the play ground and
she soon found out why he had been so eager to
take her there.
Travis wanted to have sex with the eight year old
little girl. The little
girl, even though she was eight years old, refused
to take her own
pants off and when Travis tried to pull them off
of her she got angry:
"No! Take me back home"
Travis did what the little girl asked, he brought
her home. When he
got there, at about 5am, he put his son Alijah
into his car seat, put
him in the card and drove off tell Caren Kohberger
that he was going
to get the car repaired.
A photograph taken at the scene where the baby was
found, was
showed to Caren who identifed him as her son. DNA
was taken since
the child's identity was hard to make due to the
shape he was in. Also
taken were footprints in an attempt to be sure
this child was Alijah.
Travis Mullis went on the run and headed to Maryland
where he had
family and friends. Along the way he stopped at
churches and with his sad stories was able to collect money for food and
gas and then again, he would be on his way. There wss a nationwide manhunt
going on
for Travis, even so, he managed to make it to Philadelphia.
When he
arrive there, he turned himself in at the police
station stating that his
name was Travis Mullis and he wanted to talk to
someone.
On February 1, 2008, Travis made a confession to
the Philadelphia police about how he had killed his son by stomping on
his head several times until his skull had literally collapsed. He said
that his son would not stop crying and that was how he had stopped him.
Travis waived his right to extradition on February 4th and was being held
without bail.
"It's kind of gratifying to get this guy off
the street.
We're still not sure why he picked Philadelphia.
"
We have 23 police districts, but he came
right to our homicide unit and we're still not sure why he came here,
but we're glad he's off the streets and gave
a full
confession. Now, it's up to Texas to deal
with this person."
Sgt. Ray Evers - Philadelphia Police Department.
He was expected to taken back to Texas on the 5th:
"We're hoping we can get on the plane Tuesday"
Sgt. Gary Jones - Galveston Investigators
Travis was in court before Judge Jeffrey Minehart.
Waring an orange
prison uniform, he was also shackled the judge
asked:
"Do you still wish to give up to your right
to
have an extradition hearing?"
After confirming that he fully understood what was
taking place and
that he was not under the influence of drugs or
alcohol he said he
did wish to give up his right to a hearing and
then he signed papers
to make it official. John Doyle, the Assistant
District Attorney said
that the process had gone smoothly and was typical
of this kind of
case.
A representative from the Defender Association Of
Philadelphia, Dan
Stevenson, represented Travis and said that he
was ready to return to
Texas:
"He seems eager to return. He said there's
no
point in me staying here'."
Dan Stevenson also said that he had tried to find
a lawyer to reprsent
Travis in Texas and that his attempts, so far,
had been unsuccessful.
He also said that Travis seemed to nervous and
remorseful about the
things he had done:
"He seems really rocky.
He was crying when I spoke to him."
Travis was scheduled to fly back to Texas on a Southwest
Airlines
flight. Unfortunately, Southwest policy doesn't
allow anyone to fly
while handcuffed. The police had to make alternate
arrangements to
get him back to Texas, saying they didn't want
him to fly without the
handcuffs.
A spokesman, Bog Eskind, said that Travis was being
held in an 8 by
10 cell with a bed, toilet and a sink. He also
said that as is procedure
with new inmates, he would be given a behavioral
health screening,
classification interview with an intake Social
worker.
Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk
was in charge of the case and said the evidence was taken to a judge in
order to get an authorized bond and to get a charge of capital murder.
Travis was
taken to jail and his bail was set at $1 million
dollars.
In court, Travis stated his name and address for
the judge, however,
he answered most of his answers to questions with
a yes or no. When
asked about his mental health history, he said
that he had been taking behvior modification medications until about three
years prior when he was no longer able to afford them.
Caren had been cooperating with the police up to
the point that she
was charged with child endangerment when it was
learned that she
handed her son over to Travis at 4:30am the morning
he killed him, after he threatened to to hurt another of the children in
the trailer they were living in. One of Caren's friends said that the charges
were a
big mistake:
"I feel like they're pulling for something,
they're
trying to make a case that might not even
really be
there. I really don't think it's on Caren
so much as
it would on T.J."
Anonymous
The District Attorney said that Caren should not
have handed her son
over to Travis since she knew he was not stable
and that he could
possibly hurt him. The arrest affidavit said that
Carn had told police
that Travis had been up all night having flashbacks
of having been
sexually abused as a child. In addition, she said
tha the had told her
he needed to get out of the house because he was
afraid he might
try to do something to one of the children. He
had once told her that he had sexually abused a child while he was a minor.
Invesitgators said that armed with this information, Caren should not have
allowed Travis to take Alijah out of the house. Friends of Caren say she
had no reason to believe he would hurt him:
"She did it for security purposes. He did
have a tendency of taking off and not returning for a few days, so
that allowing him to take Alijah)was her
security
of him returning."
Michelle
Caren disappeared later and her friends said she
was probably in New
York.
Travis Mullis was charged with capital murder in
the death of his son and he also faced felony charges of enticing a child.
Prosecutors in the case said they would seek the death penalty for Travis.
Assistant Galveston County District Attorney Larry Drosnes met with Robert
Loper, the attorney for Travis, privately to tell him of the decision which
had been made to seek the death penalty.
Assistant Galveston County District Attorney Larry
Drosnes met privately with the defense attorney for Travis Mullis - Robert
Loper - outside the courtroom of District Judge John Ellisor to inform
him of the decision.
Seeking the death penalty meant that Judge Ellisor
would have to
appointe a second defense attorney and would probably
do so at the
next court date which would be September 2008.
Robert Loper said
that his client suffered with a history of mental
illness and he was not
sure if that and the troubled life he had growing
up would come up in
his defense.
On February 18, 2008, a grand jury indicted Travis
Mullis on capital
murder charges. On August 8, 2008, prosecutors
announced that
they would seek the death penalty for Travis.
Caren Kohberger was arrested while leaving a mental
hospital in New
York on February 2, 2008. Her Attorney, Jimmy Phillips,
said that she
turned herself in after waiving extradition from
New York to Texas.
Caren's bond was originally set at $60,000. and
was later reduced to
$20,000. which she posted within half an hour of
turning herself in.
At a place called MyYearBook, Travis has a page
and on the page he
has marijuana leafs falling from the sky like snowflakes.
Travis has
only four friends, one of them being Caren. Absent
is ANY mention of having a son or that he murdered him.
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For information about preventing child abuse in the
state of Texas, click the links below. If they can't help you, ask for
someone who can. NEVER give up looking for help for an abused child!
Department
Of Family And Protective Services
Call this number to report
child abuse ANY WHERE in the United States!
1-800-4-A-Child
1-800-422-4453
  
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