WATE
July 6, 2015
A Shelby County man already serving time on three first degree murder and three aggravated rape charges has been charged in the 2008 beating and sexual assault of a 79-year-old Knoxville woman.
Michael Mullins, 53, was recently arrested and pleaded guilty to the Shelby County incidents which occurred in 1999, 2011 and 2012. He is currently serving a prison sentence of life without parole.
Police say he was responsible for brutally beating and sexually assaulting Jessie Maples, 79. A group playing frisbee found Maples lying near some bushes in East Knoxville’s Morningside Park on April 18, 2008.
Maples spent several days in the hospital and was never able to return home. She died in 2012 in an area nursing home.