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Whether Rachael Mullenix actually held the knives that killed her mother or not, she’s guilty of first-degree murder because she made sure it happened, the prosecution said in closing arguments today.

“You don’t have to ever even discuss, if you don’t want to, what happened in that room,” prosecutor Sonia Balleste said. “If you believe there’s a plan to kill and you believe she committed any act in furtherance of that act, knowing she was intending to kill, you’re done.”

Mullenix, 19, is charged with conspiracy and murder in the killing of her mother Barbara Mullenix, found with more than 50 stab wounds near the Newport Harbor Yacht Club on Sept. 13, 2006. Prosecutors say she manipulated her then-lover Ian Allen into helping her kill Barbara Mullenix in the Huntington Beach condo where she lived and then dispose of the body.

More than 50 stab wounds on the body, caused by multiple knives, show that Barbara Mullenix’s killer wasn’t just caught up in some fit of passion, Balleste said.

“Whoever killed Barbara Mullenix intended to kill her – overkilled her – and left no doubt in our minds what their intent was,” she said.

Though Mullenix has testified that she tried to stop Allen as he held the victim on a bed and stabbed her to death, Balleste told jurors that it was close to absurd to believe that he did it all alone.

“What that leaves us with is Ian the super villain,” she said. “Because in order for Ian Allen to have committed this crime all alone, Ian must have tremendous strength, the strength of Samson. Because he uses the knives with the skill of a samurai to fend off Barbara, hold her down, and is able to embed a butter knife in her eye and fight her off, all while Rachael Mullenix fights with all her strength to stop him.”

Closing arguments by the defense continue this afternoon.