In January 2016, 23-year-old Danielle Cabo Jones was in search of a roommate after the person who had been helping her pay the rent for their downtown Miami apartment unexpectedly moved out. If Jones couldn't find a roommate, she would have to move out herself because the rent was more than she could afford. So, out of desperation, she placed an ad on Craigslist for a roommate.
After responding to Jones' Craigslist solicitation, 35-year-old Byron Mitchell, on February 1, 2016, moved into the apartment with Jones. The Air Force veteran and personal trainer quickly became romantically interested in his new roommate. Jones made it clear to him that she wasn't interested in him in that way. Mitchell refused to take no for an answer. This led to frequent arguments and accusations by Jones that he was harassing and stalking her.
On February 14, 2016, after they had shared the apartment for just two weeks, Byron Mitchell, in the midst of a heated argument, chased Jones into bathroom where he threw her to the floor and started punching and choking her. As she lay on the floor with broken teeth, a swollen face and a fractured skull, he stabbed her several times.
With Jones bleeding and unconscious on the bathroom floor, Mitchell took a shower, deleted his text messages from her phone, then dropped her cellphone into a sink full of water. He next called 911 and informed the dispatcher he had stabbed his roommate when she rushed him with a knife.
Police officers and medics found Danielle Jones lying in a pool of blood next to the knife. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she remained in a coma for two weeks. She survived the attack, but had incurred permanent damage to her brain.
From the beginning, detectives did not buy Mitchell's self-defense story. She was five-three, 115 pounds and he was six-two, 190. Officers also didn't believe Mitchell when he said he had not sought Jones' affection. Investigators discovered text messages the suspect had sent to his sister asking for advice on how to break the ice with his new roommate. He also Google searched "Rohypnol," a common date-rape drug.
On February 15, 2016, Miami-Dade County prosecutor Sara Imm charged Byron Mitchell with aggravated assault and attempted murder. The magistrate denied him bail.
Byron Mitchell went on trial in June 2019. The lead detective in the case testified that the defendant had a record of serious psychological problems during his time in the Air Force. He also had a long history of stalking his former girlfriends. When detectives asked Mitchell about his problem with women, he replied that they just didn't understand him.
Danielle Jones took the stand and described how the defendant had become immediately obsessed with her, and when she informed him she wasn't interested in that kind of relationship, he harassed and stalked her. She also described the vicious attack in her bathroom that had almost cost her her life.
Byron Mitchell did not take the stand on his own behalf. His attorney, in his closing argument to the jury, tried to make his client more sympathetic by noting that as a child he had been bullied. The defendant, according to his attorney, also had mental problems due to a childhood head injury. The attorney also blamed the Air Force for not providing Mitchell psychiatric help.
The jury, after a brief deliberation, found Byron Mitchell guilty as charged.
On December 10, 2019, at Mitchell's sentencing hearing, Danielle Jones discussed how the assault had changed her life: "I wanted to go to school for criminal justice and psychology and now, I have my 11-year-old brother help me with my math, what was my best subject in school."
Byron Mitchell, in addressing the court, issued a weak, self-centered apology, then in a lecturing tone, infuriated everyone in the courtroom by saying this to the woman he had permanently damaged: "Don't let a single incident hold you back."
Judge John Schlessinger sentenced Byron Mitchell to life in prison.
After responding to Jones' Craigslist solicitation, 35-year-old Byron Mitchell, on February 1, 2016, moved into the apartment with Jones. The Air Force veteran and personal trainer quickly became romantically interested in his new roommate. Jones made it clear to him that she wasn't interested in him in that way. Mitchell refused to take no for an answer. This led to frequent arguments and accusations by Jones that he was harassing and stalking her.
On February 14, 2016, after they had shared the apartment for just two weeks, Byron Mitchell, in the midst of a heated argument, chased Jones into bathroom where he threw her to the floor and started punching and choking her. As she lay on the floor with broken teeth, a swollen face and a fractured skull, he stabbed her several times.
With Jones bleeding and unconscious on the bathroom floor, Mitchell took a shower, deleted his text messages from her phone, then dropped her cellphone into a sink full of water. He next called 911 and informed the dispatcher he had stabbed his roommate when she rushed him with a knife.
Police officers and medics found Danielle Jones lying in a pool of blood next to the knife. She was rushed to a nearby hospital where she remained in a coma for two weeks. She survived the attack, but had incurred permanent damage to her brain.
From the beginning, detectives did not buy Mitchell's self-defense story. She was five-three, 115 pounds and he was six-two, 190. Officers also didn't believe Mitchell when he said he had not sought Jones' affection. Investigators discovered text messages the suspect had sent to his sister asking for advice on how to break the ice with his new roommate. He also Google searched "Rohypnol," a common date-rape drug.
On February 15, 2016, Miami-Dade County prosecutor Sara Imm charged Byron Mitchell with aggravated assault and attempted murder. The magistrate denied him bail.
Byron Mitchell went on trial in June 2019. The lead detective in the case testified that the defendant had a record of serious psychological problems during his time in the Air Force. He also had a long history of stalking his former girlfriends. When detectives asked Mitchell about his problem with women, he replied that they just didn't understand him.
Danielle Jones took the stand and described how the defendant had become immediately obsessed with her, and when she informed him she wasn't interested in that kind of relationship, he harassed and stalked her. She also described the vicious attack in her bathroom that had almost cost her her life.
Byron Mitchell did not take the stand on his own behalf. His attorney, in his closing argument to the jury, tried to make his client more sympathetic by noting that as a child he had been bullied. The defendant, according to his attorney, also had mental problems due to a childhood head injury. The attorney also blamed the Air Force for not providing Mitchell psychiatric help.
The jury, after a brief deliberation, found Byron Mitchell guilty as charged.
On December 10, 2019, at Mitchell's sentencing hearing, Danielle Jones discussed how the assault had changed her life: "I wanted to go to school for criminal justice and psychology and now, I have my 11-year-old brother help me with my math, what was my best subject in school."
Byron Mitchell, in addressing the court, issued a weak, self-centered apology, then in a lecturing tone, infuriated everyone in the courtroom by saying this to the woman he had permanently damaged: "Don't let a single incident hold you back."
Judge John Schlessinger sentenced Byron Mitchell to life in prison.
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