GALVESTON — Prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Travis James Mullis, the Alvin man charged with capital murder in the stomping death of his 3-month-old son.

The decision, announced Tuesday after a meeting with prosecutors and defense attorneys, means that if Mullis’ case reaches trial, it will be one of the first death penalty cases tried in the county in more than a decade.

Prosecutors will also seek a death sentence for the two adults charged with capital murder in the robbery of the Seawall Citgo and shooting death of its clerk Jan. 31. State law prohibits the two juveniles charged in the case from facing the death penalty, even if they stand trial as adults.

Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said he decides whether to pursue the death penalty based on the defendants’ criminal history, case law, circumstances of the crime, evidence and what parts of that evidence are admissible in court.

“Certainly, the death penalty could be sought in every capital case tried, but that would clearly be a decision made without regard to thought of anything other than emotions,” he said.

He said the two capital murder cases had enough evidence to prove the accused would be a continuing threat to society, which is the question jurors must debate during death penalty cases.

A sightseeing couple found Mullis’ son, Alijah Mullis, dead near East Beach on Jan. 29, a few feet from his car seat.

Three days later, Travis Mullis walked into a Philadelphia police station and surrendered.

He told investigators there he had stomped on the baby’s head until his skull caved in because the boy would not stop crying, according to police reports.

The infant’s body was found about five hours after Mullis left his Alvin trailer home with the child.

Two days after the Mullis baby’s body was found, a man walked into the Seawall Citgo, 4502 Seawall Blvd., and shot clerk Abdul Meje twice in the chest during a robbery.

Robert Lee Stevens, 33, and Katie Wade, 18, the two adults charged in the case, will face the death penalty if convicted.

Earlier this year, Sistrunk announced prosecutors wouldn’t seek a death penalty during the capital murder trials of the mother and stepfather of 2-year-old Riley Ann Sawyers, whose decomposed body was found inside a storage container in West Galveston Bay on Oct. 29 and known for weeks only as Baby Grace.

Sistrunk said his decision was based on case law that found if someone accused had only acted violently against a segment of society that wouldn’t be encountered in prison, such as their children, a life sentence was the appropriate punishment.

“It makes no sense, but points out even more so why we must look at case law in our evaluation process,” Sistrunk said.

Galveston County prosecutors last pursued a death-penalty case in 2004 against Jose Castillion, who was accused of killing two women and leaving them in a Texas City field. He accepted a plea bargain for two consecutive life sentences.

The last time a Galveston County jury heard a death-penalty case was for Robert Alan Shields Jr. in 1995.

Shields was put to death in 2005 after a jury found him guilty of breaking into his neighbor’s Friendswood home and killing her.