Steven Eric Mullins was born in 1973 and resided in Fayetteville, Alabama. He had a history of criminal activity, including convictions for burglary and forgery. Mullins was known in his community for his racist and homophobic views, often wearing Ku Klux Klan apparel and displaying Confederate symbols. He identified as a skinhead and was known to make derogatory remarks towards minorities. Mullins had a strained relationship with his father and alternated between working in construction and being unemployed. ​

On February 19, 1999, Mullins, then 25, and his acquaintance Charles Monroe Butler, 21, lured 39-year-old Billy Jack Gaither, a gay man, from a bar in Sylacauga, Alabama, under the pretense of socializing. They drove Gaither to a secluded area where Mullins attacked him, slashing his throat and beating him with an axe handle. Believing Gaither to be dead, they placed his body on a pile of tires, doused it with kerosene, and set it on fire.

Mullins confessed to the murder, stating that Gaither's sexual orientation was the motive. He pleaded guilty to capital murder in June 1999 and was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

While serving his sentence at St. Clair Correctional Facility, Mullins was fatally stabbed by fellow inmate Christopher Scott Jones on February 26, 2019. He succumbed to his injuries two days later.