Trini faces US murder charge

David Winfield Mitchell held his head down as the rulings were read to him.

The 60-year-old man is a suspect in the murder of American beauty queen, Sheila Harris, who was found dead in her apartment in Carson City, Nevada, in 1982. A post-mortem report revealed the 18-year-old woman had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. Shortly after the murder Mitchell was reportedly deported to Trinidad for residing illegally in the US.

Mitchell’s defence attorney Leon Gokool, in his submissions, told the court his client should be discharged and should not be extradited on the grounds that he was treated unfairly. Gokool said it was a breach of Mitchell’s rights to not have documents disclosed to him which could assist in the matter.

Gokool told the court that the prosecuting authority failed to provide sufficient evidence of the true state of the DNA technology in 1982 when the murder was committed and how much evidence was provided to say that Mitchell was the perpetrator at the time.

Gokool argued that when the offence was committed in 1982, US investigators found nothing. “In 1999, when DNA matched that of the accused no steps were taken until January 2006. It is now that a warrant was issued and he has been subject to interrogation. Why was there a delay from 1982 to 2006? If you have a man to be extradited it must be swift. There is no justification for the delay,” he said.

However, attorney for the State, David West, contended that the DNA examination was only available in 2000.

It was the fingerprints that were found in 2000, via the DNA technology, which matched that of Mitchell and caused the case to be reopened.

He indicated that there was enough evidence to accuse Mitchell of the act.

Gokool, however, objected to West’s submissions stating that he was misleading the court.

Mc Nicolls approved the State’s request for Mitchell to be extradited but referred the case to the high court, for hearing of his appeal. He said Mitchell could not be sent to the US within the next 15 days and remanded him into custody.