Rachael Mullinex case in jurors’ hands

Depending on whether you listened to the prosecution or defense, Rachael Mullenix is either a manipulative killer and a liar who used her boyfriend to help her knock off her mom, or she is the abused victim of her violent beau and only helped him cover up a murder because she didn’t know how else to cope with a shocking act.

That’s what jurors now have to decide, as they went into deliberation Monday afternoon in search of a verdict.

As the trial of Mullenix, 19, neared an end, the prosecution and defense made closing arguments in a last attempt to get their cases across.

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.

“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.”

In return, defense attorney David R. Cohn said many of the most damning pieces of testimony — like diary entries saying Mullenix hated her mother — had been taken out of context. The plan wasn’t to kill her mother, Barbara Mullenix, but to run away from her, he said.

“What we have is a plan to run away,” he said. “It makes sense into the facts of this case if you put it into context and don’t piecemeal things. What the D.A.’s or prosecutor’s case says just doesn’t make sense.”

Mullenix, 19, is charged with conspiracy and murder in the killing of 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-boyfriend Ian Allen into helping her kill Barbara Mullenix in the Huntington Beach condo where the two women lived and then dispose of the body in Newport Beach.

More than 50 stab wounds 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 — over-killed her — and left no doubt in our minds what their intent was,” she said.