Iowa hog farmer Todd Mullis [photo], was found guilty of first degree murder after he stabbed his wife Amy Mullis multiple times with a pitch fork. He will now be sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole

An Iowa pig farmer has been found guilty of killing his wife with a corn rake after a jury believed he became enraged after finding out she was having an affair.
Todd Mullis, 43, will be sentenced to life in prison without parole after he slayed Amy Mullis, 39, at their farm near Earlville on November 10, last year.
The jury reached a verdict after deliberating for seven-and-a-half hours over two days.

They believed the prosecution’s allegations that Todd was angry over Amy’s affair with field manager Jerry Frasher, 49, which started in the summer of 2018 and continued until her death.
He was also said to be fearful that he would lose their land if she divorced him.

Victim: Amy Mullis was found in a barn on her family’s farm in Iowa on Nov 10, 2018. She had been impaled on a rake

Subsequently he told Amy they had to cool things off after Todd confronted him about text messages he’d found.
Todd Mullis confronted him in July 2018 after a phone bill showed more than 100 instances of Frasher and Amy texting, Frasher said.
‘I said it was about other stuff, like showing pigs,’ Frasher said.
Todd Mullis called Frasher’s wife asking questions about the text messages, and their discussion appeared to satisfy him, Frasher said.


‘Two days later, he called us both back and apologized,’ Frasher testified. ‘He asked us to quit texting, and we did.’
Frasher said he told Amy Mullis: ‘We need to slow down.’
During cross-examination Frasher said he continued to provide professional services to the Mullis farm until Amy Mullis’ death. He said Todd Mullis never showed any animosity toward him.

Terri Staner told Dubuque County Courthouse: ‘She was telling me, “I’m still not sure what I should do”.
‘When she very first told me about the affair, I was so angry with her. I said, “You’re putting yourself in a difficult place. He is going to kill you.” Todd is the person you don’t mess with.’
Staner added: ‘She felt like she was strong enough to leave on her own. And if that was the case, it’s not so much she would leave for him [Frasher] but she would leave on her own.’
Another friend, Patricia Christopherson, told the court: ‘She wasn’t happy and hadn’t been happy for many years.
‘She said she was scared of Todd, and if he found out about the affair, he would kill her.’


Amy’s friends are said to have called her ‘POT,’ short for ‘Prisoner of Todd’.
She is said to have told her brother she was fearful her husband of 14 years would ‘flip out’ when she filed for divorce after an earlier affair with another man in 2013.

State forensic pathologist Dr Kelly Kruse [photo], testified last week that the victim’s wounds indicate that she was attacked, as she’d been impaled by a corn rake ‘at least twice, possibly three times’.

Dr. Kelly Kruse, of the state medical examiner’s office, testified that the farm wife was impaled by a corn rake ‘at least twice, possibly three times’.
She added: ‘The manner of death was homicide.’
The coroner determined that while the corn rake had four tines, Amy had at least six puncture wounds, indicating she had been stabbed repeatedly.
The court heard Thursday how Todd’s internet search history revealed that he had googled infidelity, ‘what happens to cheaters in history’ and where organs are in the body.
Todd Mullis had said that Amy had accidentally fallen on a corn rake, but prosecutors say medical evidence showed she had been stabbed in the back with it.
State Prosecutor Marie Hughes said Tuesday: ‘He hoped people would feel sorry for him and not ask any more questions.’
Todd Mullis’ attorneys did not dispute that Amy Mullis was killed but say there was reasonable doubt about who killed her, according to reports.
Family photos from Facebook show what appeared to be a happy family, doting over their children as they showed off hunting trophies and awards for gymnastics and 4-H club.

Todd claimed that he had been working in the north hog building with Amy and their 13-year-old son that morning when he noticed that Amy appeared to be having dizzy spells.
The husband said he told his wife to go lie down in the house until she felt better, but asked her to grab an animal carrier for a litter of kittens from another outbuilding before she went inside.
When the father and son left the hog barn to get a drink, the animal carrier wasn’t where Amy was supposed to leave it, Todd said.
Todd told police that he asked his son to look for Amy. The boy made a grisly discovery in a nearby shed, finding his mother lying on the ground with a corn rake impaled in her back.


Todd said he pulled the rake out and rushed Amy to the nearest hospital, calling 911 on the way.
About halfway to the hospital, which is 13 miles from the farm, emergency services met Todd on the road and transferred Amy to an ambulance, taking her the rest of the way. She was declared dead on arrival at the hospital.