Trini faces murder charge in Las Vegas

David Winfield Mitchell left aboard American Airlines flight 1819 to Miami International Airport yesterday morning where he will then be transferred to Nevada, Las Vegas, to answer the murder charge. He was accompanied by three US Marshals who came to Trinidad earlier this week.

Mitchell was arrested on August 18 by members of the local Interpol Branch at Rock City, Laventille, after the office of the Attorney General had received a provisional warrant from the US Department of Justice for his arrest. He appeared before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls in the Port-of-Spain Eighth Magistrates’ Court where he challenged his extradition. Mitchell retained attorney Leon Gokool to represent him, while David West, of the Central Authority of the Attorney General’s office, represented the US Government.

After the evidence was adduced, Mc Nicolls ordered that Mitchell be extradited to the US. Mitchell had 15 days in which to challenge the extradition. He expressed interest in filing for a writ of habeas corpus, but he never did and after the expiration of the appeal period, the US Marshals came to Trinidad to escort Mitchell to the US.

Mitchell is wanted for the murder of teenage beauty queen Sheila Harris who was found dead in her east Carson City apartment in Nevada in 1982.

At the time, Mitchell worked at the apartment complex as a handyman.

An autopsy revealed that Harris had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled. An old boyfriend of Harris and Mitchell were both suspects in the 1982 murder, but investigators were unable to find physical evidence linking them to the crime.

Investigators even went so far as to track Mitchell to New York where he had moved with his family.

In 1999, Lt Bob White, a detective with the Carson City Sheriff’s Department, asked officials to allow him to review cold cases. About the same time, Harris’ mother, Linda Bratton, contacted the detective division and asked if evidence in the case could be submitted for DNA testing. In July 1999, a lab processed all the evidence with technology that was not available in 1982. Among the evidence was DNA found on Harris’ body and underclothing.

According to Lt White, a sample obtained from Mitchell matched a sperm sample taken from Harris’ body. But there was one problem. Shortly after the 1982 murder, Mitchell was deported to his native Trinidad. He had been in the US illegally. After the DNA results were received in 2000, Mitchell’s whereabouts were unknown.

In 2003, investigators tracked down Mitchell’s ex-wife in Hawthorne who said she last contacted the fugitive in Trinidad in 2000.

In January 2005, Interpol, with the assistance of the local police, found Mitchell living in Mount Hope, Trinidad.

He was working as a night watchman for the Ministry of Works and Transport. In January this year, a murder charge was formally laid against Mitchell and filed in the Carson City Justice Court in Nevada.

Mitchell is expected to appear in court today to answer the murder charge.