Landrum man jailed for two years found not guilty

Sometimes you have to wait for justice. Those were the thoughts in Alfard Mullins' mind when he walked out of a Polk County, N.C. courtroom after being found not guilty of a string of child sex crimes.

The Landrum man sat behind bars for two years, five months and four days before going into a jury trial Aug. 31.

“It was just one thing after another,” Mullins' mother, Cheryl Cooper, said. “It was just so unfair, so unfair for him to sit there that long. … This has just been a nightmare.”

A series of setbacks delayed the trial, and a number of bond hearings were uneventful. His bond stayed at $1 million.

At one point, the district attorney's office offered Mullins a plea deal to plead guilty for a lesser sentence.

Pleading guilty as a way out was not an option for Mullins, he said.

Mullins is now readjusting to life on the outside after he had been held in jail since April 1, 2013. The 36-year-old lost his job, lost his savings and had his reputation tarnished with accusations that he molested several minor girls.

“Just to take somebody's life like that, I had a good job. … I lost my savings. Now I'm out and I have nothing,” he said. Mullins is currently living with Cooper to get back on his feet.

He credits his attorney, Saluda-based Lee Atkins, for believing in him and seeing the case through to an eventual trial. The charges came about after his estranged wife accused him of sexually assaulting her child and a niece of Mullins on numerous occasions. Mullins said the accusations were her way of getting rid of him. The claims never did not hold up in court.

It took a jury 57 minutes to issue a not guilty verdict on all 13 counts, which was whittled down from an initial 21 counts that included incest, child abuse, first-degree rape and first-degree sexual offense. The other eight initial charges were dropped.

“I had a feeling in my heart I was coming home. I did a lot of praying and had a lot of faith,” Mullins said.

Mullins and his family are now trying to move beyond the glaring setback and are hoping the justice system improves to prevent someone else's life from being put on hold.

“There was no evidence against him. All of the evidence exonerated him,” said Lee Atkins, a Saluda-based attorney who represented Mullins in the case. “Witnesses for the state simply couldn't testify. … Then on cross examination, they just collapsed.”

Mullins still has charges pending in Spartanburg County involving the same people since he lived in Tryon and Landrum during the alleged crimes. Attorney Doug Brannon is representing Mullins and said he contacted the solicitor's office as soon as he heard the verdict in North Carolina. He expects the outcome in Polk County will impact the case going forward in Spartanburg.

“It's a travesty of justice when innocent people are incarcerated for any reason. Certainly in North Carolina, they incarcerated an innocent man for over two years,” Brannon said. Brannon said he plans to use the court transcript from the Polk County case in his own case.

Mullins said God got him through his jail time.

“He gave me the strength through this whole thing,” Mullins said, adding that he read the Bible every day he spent locked up.

Cooper said their church community held steadfast in prayer, and members would constantly contact her to remind her they were praying and express their confidence his innocence would be proven.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 8:44 PM with the headline "Landrum man jailed for two years found not guilty."