"Murder suspect's motives remain a mystery" that’s cop talk for honest we didn’t coheres a confession from this guy!

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0727serial-mullins0727.html

Murder suspect's motives remain a mystery

Sarah Muench

The Arizona Republic

Jul. 27, 2006 12:00 AM

Seven months have passed, and Bonnie Patterson is still in shock after her son confessed to killing a 19-year-old Tempe woman only to take it back this month when police linked the "Baseline Killer" to the crime.

"I almost fell out of my chair; I couldn't believe everything that was going on," said Patterson, who lives in Kentucky. "He's absolutely not a killer, I know that."

Phoenix police say they have "irrefutable evidence" that the Baseline Killer was involved in the murder, not Mullins. They also say Mullins is no longer an investigative lead in the slaying.

Yet Mullins remains jailed on a second-degree murder charge and faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office will only say Mullins remains a subject of its investigation. Investigators are still trying to determine if he can tell them anything about the night of Georgia Thompson's death.

Larry Hammond, a criminal defense lawyer and chairman of the Arizona Justice Project, said it could take up to a month to investigate Mullins' confession and recantation and make a decision.

"It's just so hard to believe that a person would confess to a crime that they didn't commit that releasing that person is a hard thing to do," he said.

Hammond said it would require investigators to look carefully at Mullins' admissions and confer with detectives and family members of Thompson and Mullins to see what details he could provide.

"I think the answer is that they at least need to fairly evaluate how it happened," Hammond said. "If they have irrefutable evidence that someone else did it, they at least have to pause long enough to tell themselves and the public at large why they got it wrong before. They are at risk too, holding a man who could be innocent and possibly withholding his constitutional rights. It's not like they can dillydally around this forever."

Mullins is due back in court Aug. 21.

Mullins has refused requests to be interviewed. But his mother gives some insight into a man who has been at the center of Thompson's death and who police had once considered a key lead in the Baseline Killer case.

Growing up, Mullins didn't receive an education past middle school, his mother said. She wouldn't elaborate on what her son was like, except to say he has a good heart despite the things he's been involved in.

She said she was stunned to see her son on national news after being associated with the Baseline Killer, who has been killing, sexually assaulting and robbing Valley residents since August.

"Everybody's just shocked; we just don't know what to make of it," Patterson said.

She said that although her son has made mistakes, she was surprised in January when he confessed to the slaying of Thompson, who was a dancer at Skin Cabaret, a Scottsdale strip club.

"I thought he lost his mind. What else could you think? I didn't know, because I know him, and I know he wouldn't do that, especially to a woman," Patterson said. "He is not the kind of person to hurt a female and much less kill someone. I'm not saying he's the model citizen."

She wouldn't discuss things she's heard about the case.

Mullins, who grew up in Paducah, Ky., has been in and out of the city's police department since 1994, according to Paducah police. He's been suspected of robbery, theft, bail jumping and drug possession, according to the Kentucky Court of Justice.

"Every time I've dealt with him he's been cooperative," said Paducah police Detective Nathan Young, who said he has had to arrest Mullins in the past. "He would try to lie, and I would catch him in a lie and he would tell me the truth."

But he does not know why Mullins would confess to murder.

"I wouldn't understand why he would want to," Young said. "I have no idea."

Meanwhile, the 33-year-old Mullins is still sitting in a Maricopa County jail cell, and detectives "are feverishly working" on the case, according to police, who won't elaborate much more than that.

Phoenix and Tempe police and the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which is conducting the investigation, have given little detail on the case and won't say if Mullins has given any information to police about the serial killer.

"We've put James Mullins behind us," said Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Andy Hill at a media briefing on the serial killer last week. He wouldn't elaborate why.

Mullins confessed in January to fatally shooting Thompson in the head. Thompson was the first of six homicide victims police linked to the Baseline Killer. Police say they have "irrefutable evidence" linking her death to the serial murderer.

Mullins maintained his confession until Phoenix police detectives confronted him on July 13 with evidence. Police then gave him a lie-detector test, but they won't say what the results were.

"It's still a very much ongoing investigation," said Officer Brandon Banks, a Tempe police spokesman, adding that Tempe police have a liaison working with Phoenix police on Thompson's death. "If he divulges information, we will certainly pass that on to Phoenix. We are certainly not going to ignore what he says."

In transcripts of the original interview with Tempe police in Kentucky, Mullins admitted his involvement but would not tell police who may have been with him the night Thompson was shot.

He said he was with a friend from Kentucky, Curtis Maxie, and a man he recently met who he didn't know and didn't identify to police. Mullins told police he was in Arizona on a drug deal and ended up at the strip club.

Thompson was found shot once in the head at the Saddle Club Apartment Homes near Mill Avenue and U.S. 60, where she lived.

Mullins told police he solicited Thompson for prostitution, then met her three blocks away from the club where she pulled a gun on him and attempted to rob him. He then grabbed the gun and shot her, he said. But Thompson was shot at least 10 miles away in Tempe.

Why he would falsely confess to a murder for seven months is a question authorities have not been able to answer or make public.

Mullins could know details about the Baseline Killer. If the charge is dropped, he will likely be extradited to Kentucky.

He is scheduled to appear in Maricopa County Superior Court for a status conference on Aug. 21.