Texas executes father who sexually assaulted, killed infant son in 2008

Sept. 24 (UPI) -- Texas executed Travis Mullis on Tuesday night, 16 years after sexually assaulting his 3-month-old son and crushing his skull afterward by stomping on the infant.

Mullis, 38, was put to death by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville near Houston.

In his last statement, he thanked all those who had been "in my corner inside and outside, even on Death Row, that accepted me for the man I became during my best and worst moments."

"I want to thank the field ministers, the Warden and the correctional staff for all the changes being made across the system, Even the men on Death Row, to show it is possible to be rehabilitated, and not deemed a threat and not the men we were when we came into the system, we have changed we are not the same," he said.

The Brazoria County resident was executed after waiving his right to appeal.

Mullis said he did not regret taking the legal steps to expedite his "assisted suicide," but he does regret killing his son.

"I do regret the decision to take the life of my son, I apologize to the mother of my son, the victim's family. I have no ill will towards the court, the judicial system. the prosecution or the execution protocol," he said.

"The morality of execution is between you and God. It was my decision that put me here. I'm ready Warden."

Mullis was pronounced dead at 7:01 p.m. CDT, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed to UPI in an emailed statement.

Mullis, then 21, was living with his girlfriend and their infant son, Alijah, in a friend's trailer home in Brazoria County when he tried to sexually assault an 8-year-old girl on Jan. 28, 2008.

He argued with his girlfriend and then left with their son, whom he placed in the back seat of their vehicle.

Mullis drove to Galveston, which is located east of Brazoria County, and sexually assaulted the boy.

Mullis strangled the infant when he wouldn't stay quiet and crushed his skull with his boot before tossing the infant's body onto a berm leading to the Galveston seawall.

He tried to hide his crime by getting rid of the car seat and hiding Alijah's body in a remote part of Galveston's seawall.

Mullis then fled to Philadelphia and turned himself in to police four days later and confessed to killing his son.

Defense attorneys argued Mullis was sexually assaulted by his adoptive father and was diagnosed with several mental health disorders that caused him to obtain treatment at several mental health treatment facilities while a teen.

A jury on March 11, 2011, convicted Mullis of capital murder and afterward sentenced him to death.

Mullis did not challenge the death sentence until July 2013 in federal court after the Texas statute of limitations had expired for challenging it in state court.

His attorneys unsuccessfully argued Mullis' sentencing was due to poor representation by his former attorneys.

They argued his death sentence was unconstitutional and the system failed Mullis when sentencing him to death, but the federal court did not stay his execution.

Mullis was the fourth person put to death by Texas this year and the 15th nationwide, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Texas is scheduled to execute two people in October.