Todd Mullis listens to testimony in his murder trial. (KCRG TV photo)
Several people were called to testify during the second day of the trial of an Earlville man accused of killing his wife with a corn rake. Todd Mullis is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife Amy last November.
A friend of Amy Mullis described Todd as suspicious in the days leading up to her death. KCRG TV was in the courtroom where Terri Stane testified that Amy gave her instructions on where to look if she disappeared. “I said at that time, he is going to kill you,” Staner said. The prosecutor asked why she said that. “Because Todd is someone you don’t want to mess with,” Staner replied.
The man who Amy Mullis had an affair with the summer before her death also testified. Jerry Frasher said Amy Mullis told him her husband was controlling, and she felt like she was a slave or a hostage. She explained to him that she didn’t want Todd to know about the affair.
The corn rake believed to be the murder weapon. (KCRG TV photo)
“One time she did say that if he ever found out she would disappear,” Frasher said. The prosecutor asked him if he was afraid of Todd finding out about the affair. “Yes, why wouldn’t you be,” Frasher replied.
Todd Mullis claimed Amy fell on the corn rake. The state medical examiner who conducted Amy Mullis’ autopsy testified Wednesday on her findings that the death was a homicide. Doctor Kelly Kruse, described seeing injuries on Amy’s face, hands, and knees.
Kruse said she observed six puncture wounds on her back, which she believes came from the corn rake. She said Mullis’s injuries indicate she was punctured more than once. “Those four wounds went back to front, right to left, and downward. The leftmost also went back to front, right to left, but they went upward,” Kruse said.
The prosecutor asked what the different directions meant. Kruse says that indicated that Mullis had been impaled with the rake at least twice.
Todd Mullis was in the courtroom watching the testimony throughout the day.