Mullen sentenced to 15 years

Waseca area resident Franklin Mullen, 45, was sentenced to 180 months in prison during an emotional hearing at the Waseca County Courthouse on May 5. About 30 family members and friends attended in support of victims attacked and threatened during a June incident when Mullen, under the influence, stabbed his now estranged wife Sarah in the back and used a gun to threaten his parents who entered the room in response to Sarah’s screams.

Waseca County Attorney Rachel Cornelius argued to the court that Mullen should receive the maximum sentence specified in Minnesota statute for second-degree attempted murder, a charge to which he had previously pleaded guilty.
 

Mullen’s attorneys had motioned for a sentence of about 12 years.

 

Sarah Mullen shared a statement which summarized the traumatic experience, the frightening uncertainties surrounding her health after the injury, and the many losses caused by the attack–including that she and her children can no longer find a sense of safety and security in their daily lives.

 

“I wondered if I would live,” she shared. “I wondered if I would ever walk again.” She described that the knife Mullen planted in her back had come within a centimeter of severing her aorta on one side and her spinal cord on the other, so that her recovery process has led to lengthy, ongoing physical therapy.

 

Cornelius told the court the severe mental and physical impact of Mullen’s attack merited the longest allowable sentence.

 

Mullen’s attorneys argued that his remorse over the crime, which included his decision to plead guilty rather than to require his family members to testify at a jury trial, justified a lower sentence. Mullen read a tearful personal statement in which he apologized to each of his family members in turn, then stated he “would give anything” if there were a way to undo his actions.

 

While delivering her judgment on the matter, Waseca County District Court Judge Carol Hanks told Mullen her decision to impose the longer sentence was based on numerous decisions he made prior to the attack. These included disregarding the advice of medical professionals, stopping use of prescribed medications, and “self-medicating” with dangerous substances including alcohol and THC.