Court to rule on evidence in capital case involving deaths of mother, infant

A dog named “Andy” came to Columbus with Alabama Deputy State Fire Marshal Ray Cumby on Aug. 26, 2014, and sniffed out a crime scene at 1324 Winifred Lane.

The dog and handler arrived here five days after authorities searched the fire-gutted home found the charred bodies of 32-year-old Rosella “Mandy” Mitchell and her 6-month-old son Dylan Conner.

Suspecting arson, local investigators the previous Aug. 21 had collected five items of evidence they thought might reveal a flammable liquid was used to start the blaze, but no dog trained to sniff out such evidence was available then.

Testifying Wednesday in a pretrial hearing for accused killer Brandon Conner, who was Mitchell’s boyfriend and Dylan’s father, Columbus fire Sgt. Lance Christenson said local authorities tried to find a Georgia dog trained for the task, but the two dogs usually available in the state were in Maine for training.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives then sought help from Alabama, and Cumby was ordered to load Andy up and head to Columbus.

Cumby testified Wednesday that he first checked the fire scene to ensure Andy safely could negotiate it, then brought in the dog that alerts to the scent of accelerants like gasoline by staring at the source with his nose to it, then sitting down.

In the kitchen of the burned house, Andy alerted to a kitchen cabinet below the sink, Cumby said. Christenson said investigators cut the cabinet door loose and kept it.

At a threshold between the kitchen and living room, Andy alerted again, this time on the floor, Cumby said. Christenson said carpeting there was cut free with a razor and collected.

Then in a room toward the rear of the house, where a hole burned in the floor beneath a window, the dog again alerted to a scent, and some wood there was removed as evidence, said Cumby, who suspected that was where the fire started.

Besides the evidence to which the dog pointed investigators, a gasoline can found in a hall closet was collected, Christenson said.

Submitted to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab, all four items tested positive for the presence of flammable liquids, testified GBI forensic chemist Victoria Oehrlein, who said nothing authorities had collected five days earlier tested positive.

Cumby said Andy has worked four years in the field and weekly is retrained if not dispatched to a crime scene. The dog has a success rate of 80 to 90 percent, meaning that’s how often the evidence he alerts to tests positive in the lab, Cumby said.

Conner’s defense team of J. Mark Shelnutt and William Kendrick argued the dog’s alerting to such evidence is not “scientifically verifiable,” and thus the evidence should not be admitted at trial.

The issue is among a series of court motions now before Judge William Rumer as attorneys prepare for Conner’s murder trial, in which District Attorney Julia Slater intends to pursue the death penalty. The hearings are expected to continue today and possibly Friday.

Conner’s indictment alleges that he stabbed Mitchell in the throat and torso with a knife, and that he also killed the infant, though the child’s fatal injuries are not specified.

Conner faces two counts of malice murder, two of felony murder, and one each of aggravated battery, using a knife to commit a crime and first-degree arson.

His malice murder charges allege he deliberately killed his girlfriend and child, and his felony murder counts accuse him of killing the mother and infant while committing the felony offense of aggravated assault.

Firefighters found the two face-down in a back bedroom of the house after extinguishing the blaze around 12:30 a.m.

Winifred Lane is in south Columbus, off Amber Drive north of Buena Vista Road.

Within an hour of the fire, a police officer confronted Conner at Cedar Avenue and Wynnton Road in Midtown after watching him sit immobile in his 2001 BMW for about 10 minutes. Authorities said the officer found Conner to be sweating and nervous, with blood on him.

After obtaining a search warrant, investigators found more bloodstained clothes and a large serrated knife in the car, they said.

This is the second case in which Slater, first elected in 2008, has sought the death penalty. The first was the fatal shooting of Heath Jackson during a burglary at his Carter Avenue home on Sept. 7, 2010.

In May 2013, defendant Ricardo Strozier pleaded guilty to Jackson’s homicide and a string of related crimes. Judge Gil McBride sentenced him to life in prison without parole.

This story was originally published April 27, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Court to rule on evidence in capital case involving deaths of mother, infant."