DOVER-FOXCROFT – A Milo man who went on a rampage in June 2007 and destroyed $32,000 worth of items in a home he co-owned with his then estranged wife was sentenced Monday in Piscataquis County Superior Court.

David J. Mullins, 52, pleaded no contest to charges of aggravated criminal mischief and aggravated criminal trespass. The latter charge was added before Monday’s court session and Mullins waived having the matter presented to a grand jury.

Mullins was indicted in January on an aggravated criminal mischief charge, theft by unauthorized taking, two counts of criminal mischief and burglary. The latter four charges were dismissed as part of a plea arrangement.

For his plea on the two charges, Justice William Anderson sentenced Mullins Monday to three years in jail with all but nine months suspended and placed him on probation for two years. He also was ordered to pay $3,776 in restitution for his now ex-wife’s medical expenses. Anderson, who noted Mullins had no prior criminal record previous to his assault of Virginia Mullins, said the damage to the house and furnishings was addressed during the couple’s divorce.

Mullins addressed the court and admitted his involvement in the destruction that was so bad police said it looked like a bomb went off inside the house.

“I acknowledge my transgressions,” he said in the courtroom. Despite his admission of guilt, he pleaded no contest because Virginia Mullins has filed a civil suit against him.

Virginia Mullins, who had filed for a divorce in 2007, had been granted temporary custody of the home last year after David Mullins was convicted of assaulting her. He was ordered to stay away from the home and have no contact with his wife as part of his probation on the assault charge.

Despite the order, Mullins said he went over to get a tool from his house when he knew his former wife was not home. Once inside the home, the taxidermist said he discovered some of his tools were missing and the freezers holding his finished products had been unplugged. He said he had worked two jobs for 16 years to purchase the home before he married and was distraught he would be losing it.

“I have no excuse for what I did,” he said. “I destroyed my stuff as well – dishes, plates, cups, goblets, furniture, the stereo. At that time I had no prejudice.”

Police said earlier that David Mullins had emptied food from the refrigerator and tipped it over, trashed a dishwasher, tipped over and broke a hutch with its contents, tossed a computer and monitor down cellar stairs and against a cement wall, broke table legs, slashed couches and stuffed chairs, emptied drawers, broke mirrors and tossed his estranged wife’s clothing outside.

Virginia Mullins tearfully told Anderson that he had only destroyed her property and had not touched his property. “This man’s a liar, a cheat and a thief,” she said in the courtroom. She claimed he had changed the mailing address on the insurance policy for the house so that any insurance claim would have been mailed to his post office box.

Mullins also claimed she would have been home the night of the destruction if she had not been called in to work at the last moment and theorized that she could have been murdered.

“I’ve been a prisoner for two years because of this man,” Virginia Mullins said. She said she had developed health issues from the incident and she feared for her life so much that she had moved from Maine.

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