Two years ago, police entered a Michigan home to check on a woman when she failed to show up for work. They found her seated in a chair, dead from multiple gunshots and stab wounds, while her little dog ran around her protectively.
Less than a day later, the slain woman’s 45-year-old husband would tell police he accidentally shot her during an argument.
Rather than trying to argue that to a jury, the husband accepted a plea deal the morning his trial was to begin.
On Tuesday, Oct. 24, Lonnie R. Mitchell Jr. appeared before Saginaw County Circuit Judge Manvel Trice III and pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the September 2021 killing of his wife, 49-year-old Shantina Davenport-Mitchell. In exchange, the prosecution agreed to dismiss a charge of felony firearm and to not seek a first-degree murder conviction.
Trice indicated he would sentence Mitchell to top of his advisory guidelines, which have been estimated at 270 months, or 22.5 years.
Mitchell pleaded no contest rather than guilty for reasons of civil liability. As such, he did not state he committed any crime, leaving Trice to rely on documents to enter a conviction on the record.
In a prior preliminary examination, Saginaw Township Police Officer Kevin Gloude testified he went to the Mitchells’ home at 382 Lamplighter Drive about 3:15 p.m. on September 29, 2021, after a coworker reported Davenport-Mitchell hadn’t come to work or responded to calls, texts, or emails. Mitchell likewise had not gone to work that day and wasn’t responding to calls, Gloude said.
Gloude walked to the house’s front porch and noticed the door handle was damaged. He knocked on the door and heard dogs barking from within. Peering through windows, he saw a small dog acting agitated, running around and barking, he said.
Gloude was given permission by his superior to enter the house and requested more officers to the scene.
Gloude found the front door was unlocked and stepped inside. In a cage was a large dog acting aggressive, while the smaller one ran around.
The officer entered a bedroom and found an assault-style rifle lying on the bed. He then noticed a deceased Davenport-Mitchell sitting in a chair in the room.
There were shell casings along the floor of the bedroom and adjoining bathroom, the officer said.
A subsequent autopsy would reveal Davenport-Mitchell was shot eight times and stabbed twice.
Saginaw Township Police Detective James MacDonald testified police located Mitchell at his aunt and uncle’s Flint apartment, arresting him without incident about 3:15 a.m. on Sept. 30. Given consent to search the apartment, police seized Mitchell’s tennis shoes that bore apparent blood and a loaded .380 Smith & Wesson handgun, MacDonald said.
Analysis of the shoes showed Davenport-Mitchell was a contributor to their bloodstains, the detective added.
The case’s lead investigator, Saginaw Township Police Detective Scott Jackson, testified he interviewed Mitchell a few hours after his arrest.
“He said that he was upset,” Jackson said. “They had gotten into an argument. He believed she was not being faithful to him. He was also struggling with the belief that she was controlling. She had recently shut off his phone, from what he told me. She had kicked him out of the home. He had nowhere to sleep, nowhere to eat, and he was upset about that. He said they had gotten into an argument and he shot her.”
Mitchell claimed his wounded wife told him to call 911 and they would both say the shooting was accidental, Jackson said. Mitchell instead grabbed a set of keys and left for Flint.
Stephanie Gerds, a behavioral health coordinator subcontracted to work out of the Saginaw County Jail, testified she met with Mitchell for a suicide watch assessment. Unprompted, Mitchell began telling Gerds he had killed his wife, she said.
“Mr. Mitchell made a comment that he … came in the front door and his wife was on the phone,” Gerds said. “It was a phone he did not recognize. He confronted her about it and he took a gun, put it up to his head and she went to pull the gun down and the trigger went off and it shot her and then the gun fired two more times.”
Gerds warned Mitchell to stop talking, telling him she might have to testify about what he was saying, she said.
Judge Trice is to sentence Mitchell at 9 a.m. on Jan. 22.
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