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Jasmine
Woodson, 28 Notes from
interviews with Jasmine Woodson Grew
up in Cookeville, Tenn., one of 11 children. Six siblings on her mom’s side,
four on her dad’s. First met her dad and his family when she was 14. She lived
with her mom and was the oldest child in that house.
She
went to cosmetology school and worked as a nail. She also had worked off and
on as a stripper for 10 years. She
met the father of her 3-year-old daughter Jovi in Murfreesboro through mutual
friends. Stayed with him for almost four years. Describes him as “really
abusive” toward her but a great dad to their daughter. “In
June 2019, we left our apartment because we didn’t want to stay in
Murfreesboro another year, but we didn’t find an apartment before our lease
was up. So we ended up staying in hotels, and had to
put all of our stuff in storage.” The
breaking point with her boyfriend was discovering that he had cheated on her.
That night, she got in the car with her daughter and drove to Cookeville. “At
the time, Cookeville just overwhelmed me, and I didn’t like being there. It
gave me a lot of anxiety to be there.” Reasons:
Brothers and sisters argue over petty stuff, she was aware of her mother’s
financial troubles despite her mom’s attempts to hide it, etc. “Being
there made my nerves really bad, but I thought I could figure something out.
I was staying mostly in my car, and we stayed with friends. And then my
brother said, you should come to Memphis. I got to Memphis, but reality set
in without having a job or babysitter. I was working as a nail tech, but the
childcare situation just wasn’t in our favor. She
decided to give Cookeville another go. Found an apartment that seemed like it
would work for her and Jovi but it wouldn’t be ready
for a couple of months. They bided time in Murfreesboro, sleeping mostly in
the Chevy Trailblazer she’d bought from a friend for $600. They
moved into the Cookeville apartment in March 2020, intending to stay a year
to get back on her feet, help her family and figure out what would be next.
She got a job working at a nail salon, signed a lease on March 13, and two
days later, COVID-19 shut everything down. “It’s
been hard, but family wise, I felt I was supposed to come back to Cookeville.
A lot has happened with my family since I’ve been back. I felt that it was
good that I was here to help.” Since
her return, the hard things have included her 16-year-old brother (now 17)
accidentally shooting a friend in May 2020, leaving the friend temporarily
paralyzed and physically and mentally deeply traumatizing her brother.
Jasmine helped him through it, driving him to school every morning, letting
him stay with her. The two became close as result. “Another
brother caught a gun charge for a gun that wasn’t his, my youngest sister got
pregnant. On top of that, my cousin and best friend here, Jade – we were like
sisters – passed away on June 13, 2021. I am so glad I was here because I got
to spend time with her almost every day. That made up a lot of lost time for
10 years I didn’t see her.” Jasmine
took a job as assistant state director for the BLEXIT Foundation, a Black
conservative movement and nonprofit organization. She became somewhat of a
local celebrity when she was invited to and attended a speech by President
Trump at the White House in October 2020 – “When I came back, the whole town
of Cookeville had me on billboards,” she says, laughing. She describes
herself as a Libertarian. She
says that experience and getting involved with BLEXIT gave her a push to do
more. And on New Year’s Day 2021, she sought some spiritual guidance on what
she should do next. “I
prayed and told God that I want him to take control of my life. And whatever
I’m supposed to do to for God’s will, I want to do that.” In
March, her Uncle Phil crossed her mind. Phillip Mullins, 61, is at South
Central Correctional Facility in Clifton, Tenn., serving a life sentence for
the August 1999 murder of 87-year-old Vernell Dixon. Jasmine believes Mullins
is innocent and has been working on his behalf to get him freed. Phil
had previously spent 20 years of life in prison for rape of a white woman.
Jasmine says it’s “common knowledge” that woman was Phil’s girlfriend and
they lived together. He was charged with rape after the woman’s father found
and reported him. “The
whole town knows he didn’t rape her. Even the woman. But she felt powerless
when it came to her father.” Phil
Mullins is Jasmine’s cousin – his mother was her great-grandmother’s sister –
but she has always referred to him as Uncle Phil. She was 6 the last time she
saw him at a family barbecue, the day before he went to prison for Dixon’s
murder. Growing up, Jasmine says she
remembers the Mullins name carrying a stigma around town. “After
Phil went to prison again, I remember a lot of people, saying, ‘That doesn’t
make sense. Swack would never do that.’ Swack is his nickname. His nephews
would be getting in trouble – they all have the Mullins last name. People
thought the Mullins were scary, they couldn’t be trusted. “In
junior high and high school, I remember that sometimes people would talk
about Phil’s nephew, Cory Mullins, his sister’s child, and say ‘those Mullins
boys are crazy.’ They’d say it in front of me, not knowing that I was related
to them because my name is Woodson. And I never said much. But as I got
older, I’d become defensive over this because I knew his mother, Dorothy, and
she was a great woman, who raised them as a single mom to the best of her
ability. Phil was one of 13 kids, and they were poor, and they had it rough.
Phil and his brother both have told me about times that the police would come
to their house and just mess with them when they were kids, that they’d take
them to the park and beat them up, and stuff like that. Just because they
were poor black kids.” Jasmine
calls racism “way worse in his time,” and but that she certainly has felt it
at times, starting with her first encounter with prejudice as a 5-year-old
kindergartner. “I
had a little girl friend who said I couldn’t sit on her mat because her mom
said I’d get black on it. “ Still,
she says, “I’ve never been a pushover and I always got along with everybody.” Jasmine
says her family and friends have always believed Phil is innocent
but that fear kept them from fighting to prove it. In a predominantly white town
with a history of a corrupt legal system, their fears were justified, she
says. “Everybody
was too afraid to fight the system here, out of fear of losing their jobs, or
just being embarrassed or putting themselves in danger. The ones with the
last name of Mullins are deathly afraid. After it happened, people hated the
Mullins family. It was just awful. Everyone’s been afraid to do anything, and
I’m not afraid. I just want to take a chance. Why not?” Jasmine
had been back in Cookeville for a year when she started looking into Phil’s
case. She was struck by his many appeals, his always proclaiming his
innocence, and his notes to judges saying he wanted to clear his name for his
mother’s sake. His mother died in 2013. As Jasmine looked deeper, she couldn’t
find any evidence connecting him to the Dixon murder scene. “I
wrote to him, put some money on his account, and the rest is history.” After
numerous conversations, she’s found him to be gentle, sweet, humble, earnest
– and credible. So much so that Jasmine quit her nail tech job to free up
time to take this on. She gets by with some odd jobs, doing Tarot readings
and helping friends who have businesses. “I’m
kind of living on faith and prayer right now. After I started looking into
it, I prayed again and I said God, if this man is innocent, I want you to
make this easy for me, I want doors to open swiftly. If he is guilty, I want
you stop me in my tracks and make this impossible for me to do. And it has
gone so quick that it doesn’t even feel real.” It
took no time for her to make some significant headway after learning that
Phil’s latest appeal – asking to be able to present DNA (because of a new
law) – was denied. Via Facebook, in June 2021, she called out the judge who
denied the appeal, saying he had denied it because Phil had pleaded guilty to
Dixon’s murder when he never had. “I
posted it on FB, saying, hey, Judge Gary McKenzie, you said he plead guilty
when he didn’t, and I hope you can fix this. This was on a Friday and his
office was closed. Monday morning, I started calling his office and I was met
by a really rude secretary, so I posted my
experience with her online and I posted the judge’s number and I told
everyone to call up there – all my Facebook friends. So
they all called his office, and about four hours later, [on June 10], the
judge called my phone and said, ‘Hi Ms. Woodson. I’m calling to let you know
that I did make a mistake. I’m looking at his case right here and he never
plead guilty. He was found guilty by a jury.’ He said he couldn’t promise me
anything because he’s a sitting judge, but that he would be looking into the
case. And about a week later, Phil got a letter in mail that he’d be getting
a new date, an order granting a hearing and court-appointed lawyer.” Jasmine
has taken a step back from being so deeply involved with ongoing issues with
her immediate family while working on Phil’s case. “What
I’m doing now is a lot different. I used to run at their (her family’s) every
beck and call, I would spread myself too thin. So now I put myself first and
I have to make sure I’m taking care of myself first
before I run to everybody else’s rescue. Because that hurts me. Even thinking
too deep on this stuff is hard. It’s all a lot. I’ve learned that I just need
to step back and let them make their own mistakes if they’re going to make
any. I tell them, I’ll be here if you need me, but make me a last resort.” Her
first priority is Jovi, a “rambunctious, very
inquisitive” 3-year-old who “picks up on things fast. Usually, she knows how
to go with the flow, and is very independent. Working on all this, sometimes
it’s hard for me to just give her the attention she deserves, and the mom
guilt sets in.” Why
is she so passionately convinced of Phil’s innocence? “No.
1, there is no evidence linking him to the crime. He was acquitted for first
degree murder because there wasn’t enough evidence. Phil also was charged
with robbery, but there was a $2,300
found at the scene, $2,000 in a purse and about $300 in a wallet.
Nothing was taken. Nothing was ransacked. They said Phil had her wedding
ring, but it was on the victim’s finger” in crime-scene photos. “I
talked to the family of the murdered woman. There was evidence withheld from
them. The family thought it was someone else. I think the prosecutor
fabricated information. Phil went through a few public defenders and begged a
judge for different counsel when one his lawyers told him he didn’t give a damn. I think witnesses were coerced. And I think
Phil was charged in the first place because he was big, Black, sold crack and
they couldn’t catch him.” Jasmine
says Phil has acknowledged his guilt for selling crack cocaine all along. “He
said, ‘I made myself an easy target. I’ll do whatever, but I’m not a
murderer.’ “ “He
has maintained his innocence since day one. He never took a plea that would
have let him out. He’s still fighting this. He has learned law, learned the
language now. He writes so well now. I know he has cried till he can’t cry
any more. I’m so glad he didn’t turn cynical. He also wants justice for the
woman’s family. I hate that this is his life. It’s humiliating and
embarrassing. I know he didn’t do it, and his story needs to be out there. I
just want him out so bad. I hate that this is real and that he’s been in
there for all of this time.” Asked
if she’s ever doubted his story and sincerity, her answer was an emphatic
“no.” Who
she’s sought help from: “The
Undisclosed” podcast, which has a team of lawyers that could help Phil’s
court-appointed attorney The
NAACP, which sent her some resources but otherwise was unhelpful and “left a
sour taste” in her mouth. The
Innocence Project, which never returned her calls. |
