July 09, 1997 - A Deal With Suspect
The Associated Press is reporting that District Attorney General Berkeley Bell has filed notice that he has reached a deal with attorneys for nineteen year old Edward Mullins, one of six suspects in the April shootings of the Lillelid family near Baileyton. The AP says the agreement, reached on April 10th, says that Mullins told Bell where the alleged murder weapons were following the suspects' capture. In exchange for that information, the AP reports, Bell agreed not to seek the death penalty for Mullins if he is found not to be one of the shooters in the April 6th incident, which took the lives of Vidar, Delphinia, and Tabitha Lillelid, and seriously wounded Peter Lillelid. Mullins' attorney, Steve Owens, says he never made any agreement with prosecutors, and he hasn't even seen the document. Greene County General Sessions Court says the notice has not been filed, but the Associated Press reports it has obtained a copy of the notice. The attorney for eighteen year old Natasha Cornett says he was surprised to hear of the deal with Mullins. Mullins, Cornett, and the two other adults, eighteen year old Crystal Sturgill and twenty year old Joseph Risner, are scheduled for preliminary hearings next Wednesday, while the transfer hearing for the two juvenile suspects, fourteen year old Jason Bryant and seventeen year old Renee Howell, are scheduled for next Tuesday and Thursday respectively.