Prosecution nearly finished, ex-cop to testify
After Thursday’s testimony, Franklin County prosecutors are expected to have presented the bulk of their case against former Columbus police vice officer Andrew Mitchell.
Mitchell, 58, is charged with murder and voluntary manslaughter in connection with the Aug. 23, 2018, shooting death of 23-year-old Donna Dalton Castleberry. Mitchell is expected to testify on his own behalf next week as the defense presents its case.
Late Thursday morning, the jury heard testimony from Jamie Borden, a retired Nevada police officer and consultant
in police use-of-force cases who is an expert witness for the prosecution.
When asked how many of the more than 100 cases nationwide in which Borden has testified for the prosecution and against a police officer, Borden said Mitchell’s case was the first.
Borden testified that he analyzes the decision-making processes, police performance and human factors in determining whether an officer acted appropriately, based on what that officer knew at the time and not using the addition of hindsight.
In Mitchell’s case, Borden said he found two things troubling: the changing circumstances of the incident as it unfolded and the length of time involved.
In most instances, Borden said the entirety of an incident he’s asked to review lasts about four to five seconds.
Mitchell fired six shots, three of which struck Castleberry, in a timeframe of between 12 and 15 seconds, with pauses between them, according to the audio of the incident.
“My issue started with the gunfire,” Borden said.
In his testimony, Borden said he believed Castleberry was acting defensively when she cut Mitchell and put her foot on his throat.
“It’s not a stab. It’s not an offensive type of wound,” Borden said.
In his report, Borden outlined the
intervals between the shots Mitchell fired. In a document displayed to the jury, Borden said 0.955 seconds occurred between the first and second shots. An interval of 2.43 seconds occurred between the second and third shots and 3.87 seconds lapsed between the third and fourth shots. The total time for the six shots to be fired was 12.85 seconds.
Borden noted the altercation occurred in just under 47 seconds and involved Mitchell unbuckling his seat belt, locating and unholstering his firearm, opening the driver’s side door and firing six shots.
“In that time, there was no further injury by that knife or any other knife,” Borden said. “It would have taken the same amount of time to step out and assess as it would have to do anything else.”
Later, Borden said he did not feel Mitchell’s use of force was reasonable.
“There was no continued attack happen,” he said.
Borden engaged in a contentious cross-examination by Mitchell’s lead counsel, Mark Collins, for much of Thursday afternoon. Collins pointed out that Borden did not read case law provided to him by Collins related to Ohio’s legal guidelines on interpreting the
Borden’s cross-examination by Mitchell’s attorneys had not taken place by The Dispatch’s print deadline Thursday. For the latest, go to Dispatch.com.
The jury heard Wednesday from three members of the Columbus Division of Police who responded to and investigated the shooting.
Officer Matthew Mcdaniel testified that he responded to the shooting scene in Franklinton after hearing dispatchers on police radio a “10-3” call for an officer in trouble.
No officer is seen on the body camera video taking Castleberry’s pulse or attempting to render any aid to her for more than five minutes.
When paramedics arrived at the scene of the Castleberry shooting, they discovered Castleberry still had a pulse and transported her to Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
An autopsy revealed Castleberry had cocaine and fentanyl in her system at the time of her death and had ingested it within two to three hours of her death. Castleberry had an active warrant out for her arrest and possessed a small amount of heroin at the time she died.
Mitchell was also taken to Grant Medical Center, where he received 34 stitches and underwent emergency surgery on his right hand where Castleberry had stabbed him because audio evidence indicated Castleberry feared Mitchell was trying to kidnap and potentially rape her when he could not produce a badge or radio.
Detective Laura Evans, who in August 2018 worked on the vice unit with Mitchell, testified about a series of text messages she and other detectives received in a group chat from Mitchell about a prostitution sting operation they were conducting in the Hilltop and Franklinton areas.
Mitchell was working undercover in the city’s Hilltop area when he picked Castleberry up around 11:30 a.m. that day. Castleberry was working as a prostitute as she battled a drug addiction.
Mitchell drove to the apartment building in Franklinton and parked the passenger side of the car up against the side of the building so the doors could not be opened. The child locks were on for the rear doors.
Mitchell told Castleberry that he was a police officer. But without his badge and police radio, Castleberry didn’t believe him, according to audio from Mitchell’s cellphone recording.
When Mitchell attempted to handcuff Castleberry, the audio recorded Castleberry screaming “do not put your hands on me!” and begging for help while clambering into the car’s backseat.
At 11:33 a.m. on Aug. 23, 2018, Evans testified, Mitchell texted the group: “Bellows Yale ... doesn’t believe I’m a cop.” Two minutes later, at 11:35, Mitchell texted the group “10.3.”
Evans testified that she arrived at the scene and helped apply a tourniquet to Mitchell’s knife wound. “There was a lot of blood on him,” Evans said.
Evans also testified that “almost all” of the prostitutes she encountered through the vice unit carried knives.
Detective Greg Sheppard, lead investigator on the case, testified about responding to the scene and learning Castleberry had died at the hospital. A series of some of the photos from Castleberry’s autopsy were shown to the jury, including photographs of a two bullets recovered from Castleberry’s body.
Castleberry’s family, who were in the courtroom and had been warned the photos would be shown, cried when they saw the photos presented in court.
Sheppard, who investigated the shooting as a member of Columbus Police’s Critical Incident Response Team, also testified about the audio recording Mitchell made of the encounter on his cellphone, some of which was played during opening statements Tuesday. The audio had been paired with security footage from the apartment building outside of which the shooting occurred. The full audio and video were played for the jury Wednesday.
The audio included Mitchell telling Castleberry, “I ain’t trying to kidnap you or anything.”
On the video, Mitchell is shown speaking to a woman who came out of the apartment and asking her to call 911. He did not call 911 himself and did not render any aid to Castleberry.
During cross-examination, Sheppard testified that he had the flip-flops that Castleberry was wearing tested for DNA and Mitchell’s DNA was found on the sole of one of those sandals. The defense has argued that Mitchell shot Castleberry in self-defense after she slashed him in the hand with a knife and put a foot into his neck during a struggle inside the car.
On Thursday morning, David Loomis, a forensic audio and video expert with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, testified about merging the audio Mitchell recorded on his city-issued cellphone and surveillance footage from the apartment building’s exterior camerasinto a single file.
Loomis said the video could not be enhanced to provide a view of what happened inside the car.
Prosecutors have said they anticipate calling one additional witness either Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. The defense has said they plan to call up to four witnesses, including Mitchell himself and their own use-of-force expert. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner