Ballard, 50, was a roommate of Mullins' grandfather, Bobby Mullins, who lived in Paris. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Keith Eardley said Wesley Mullins usually spent the weekend visiting his grandfather and called Ballard "Uncle Buck."
Eardley said Bobby Mullins went to bed on the night of Aug. 3, 2007, and Wesley was still up and playing with Ballard. In the late afternoon of Aug. 4, Bobby Mullins went looking for his grandson, after being in and out of the house all day, Eardley said, figuring his grandson was with Ballard. He found his grandson's body in the garage, already cold, lying in a pool of blood.
Eardley said the police took Ballard's clothes and boots. Forensic tests determined Wesley's blood was on Ballard's boots, and sexual assault tests found Ballard's DNA on the boy's genitals.
An autopsy determined that Wesley Mullins died from multiple blunt force injuries, which included six skull fractures, Eardley said.
Kyle-Griffiths said the police investigation was incomplete, at best.
"They jumped from a death to 'whodunnit,'" she said. "They landed on Buck. They put their blinders on and they stopped."
She claims police did not interrogate Bobby Mullins as a suspect and that investigators "Ignored" statements from other people who were in and out of the house, including one who said they saw a 20-year-old sitting on the porch cleaning something.
"It's not an investigation by people who are disinterested," she said. "They picked a suspect and ran."
Until a week ago, the trial was scheduled to take place in Bourbon Circuit Court, within two miles of Bobby Mullins' home on Main Street in Paris. Jury selection began in Paris last Wednesday, but Circuit Judge Rob Johnson halted the process after two days and moved the case to Versailles. Attorneys started over with a new jury pool Monday, and finished the process Thursday afternoon.
Monday in Versailles, the process began with approximately 112 potential jurors in the courtroom. Three days of individual questioning later, approximately 50 returned Thursday for the final, group questioning process.
The trial is expected to take two weeks to complete.
Contact Fred Petke at fpetke@winchestersun.com
