Man admits killing woman from CdA

Prompted by a jailhouse tip, police say a Kentucky man has confessed to the September killing of a 19-year-old Coeur d’Alene woman who moved from Idaho to Arizona last summer.

James Dewayne Mullins, 32, of Paducah, faces a charge of second-degree murder after police say he admitted he killed Georgia Thompson. Thompson’s body was found in a Tempe apartment complex parking lot Sept. 8. She had been shot in the head, officials said.

Bill Thompson, the woman’s father, on Friday urged law enforcement officials to show Mullins no mercy.

“He is a cockroach and he just needs to be stepped on,” said Thompson, 55, an insurance salesman. “I have a very hard heart.”

Mullins’ confession apparently was sparked by a tip last week from inside the McCracken County Regional Jail in Paducah, where he was being held on burglary charges. Police released no details about the source of the tip.

However, Tempe detectives said in a news release that they traveled to Kentucky to interview Mullins, who admitted the crime. Mullins is expected to be extradited from Kentucky to Arizona within a month, officials indicated. Mullins’ record includes charges for burglary, theft and drug possession, according to Paducah police records.

Mullins told police he met Thompson when he visited her workplace, a nightclub called “The Skin Cabaret” in Tempe, according to the news release.

Bill Thompson said police told him Mullins said he killed the woman after she attempted to rob him.

“He said he shot her, but it was her fault,” the father said.

Georgia Thompson moved from Coeur d’Alene to Tempe to “try to make it in the world,” Bill Thompson said. The young woman – the sixth of nine children – worked in a Hooters restaurant briefly before taking a job at what her father said was a strip club.

“I don’t think my daughter was a prostitute, but she was dancing in a club because she was frantic to make money and not return home as a failure after leaving with boasts of, ‘I’m going to make it in the world,’ ” Bill Thompson said.

He said Georgia Thompson left home because she was angry and hurt by the end of her parents’ marriage.

“I think your spirit has to be real broken to do that,” he added.