Ian W. Allen's attorney acknowledges that soon after Barbara Mullenix was stabbed and slashed to death in her Huntington Beach bedroom on Sept. 13, 2006, Allen helped stuff her body in a cardboard television box, haul it to Newport Harbor and dump it in the bay.
The 56-year-old woman's body was found covered with 52 wounds, including a slashed jugular and a butter knife from her own kitchen jammed into her eye. But during closing arguments in Allen's first-degree murder trial Monday in Orange County Superior Court, his attorney argued that the killing itself was the work of the victim's daughter and Allen's then-girlfriend, Rachael.
Rachael Mullenix, then 17, who had come to hate her mother after enduring years of verbal abuse and belligerent drunkenness, killed her mother "in a rage" and then persuaded the "peaceful" Allen to help cover it up, Deputy Public Defender Julie Swain told jurors. Dismissing Allen's confession, the lawyer argued that he agreed to take the blame because he loved her.
"He did the not-so-smart but chivalrous thing of saying, 'I did it, I killed her,' " Swain said. "The only person who was going to shove and pound a knife into Barbara Mullenix's eye was her daughter."
It was essentially the same argument, in reverse, made by Rachael Mullenix when she stood trial in July for first-degree murder. Taking the stand, she admitted to cleaning up the crime scene but blamed Allen for the killing. She was convicted and awaits sentencing.
Now Allen, 23, of Huntington Beach faces trial and a potential life sentence. Addressing jurors Monday, prosecutor Sonia Balleste argued that days before the slaying, Allen spoke to friends about killing Barbara Mullenix, taking her body by car to the desert and blowing it up with explosives. One friend jokingly suggested he dispose of her in the water.
Rachael Mullenix had fought bitterly with her mother for years, and in Tampa, Fla., in 2004 she slashed her mother with a knife and left her arms scored with cuts. The girl drew a lesson from the experience, the prosecutor said: "It's gonna take two. She couldn't finish the job."
The prosecutor said Rachael portrayed her mother as evil to her boyfriend and manipulated him into taking part in the killing.
"Ian is in love with Rachael Mullenix and wants to marry her," Balleste said. "Real or perceived, Barbara stands in their way." She added, "Ian Allen wanted Barbara Mullenix to suffer a slow and painful death."
