Detective tells how police tracked down murder suspect

A detective testifying Tuesday in the murder trial of Sandy Mitchell told the jury how police tracked down and charged Mitchell in the Sept. 23, 2012, homicide of Yellow Cab driver Byron Keith Brown.

Police Cpl. Amanda Hogan testified that after finding Brown dead in his cab at Munson Drive and Shelby Street in Columbus' Benning Hills neighborhood, detectives checked cab company records for Brown's last pickup, which was at the Motel 6 at 3050 Victory Drive. A worker there told them the customer for whom he'd called the cab reportedly came from Room 234.

In the room police found a man and woman who said they'd met that night at Mario's, a downtown bar and restaurant, Hogan testified. Further questioning revealed the man had rented the room for an extended stay, as he regularly came back to Columbus to visit family after working 30-day stints in North Dakota.

He told police he'd had his mail delivered to an old Army buddy named "Mitch," who with his wife, Asia, lived at 2116 Munson Drive, Hogan said. The wife answered the door when police went to that address, and told them she had not seen her husband since 10 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2012, the detective said.

After retracing the taxi's route from the motel to Phenix City's Legacy Estates at 300 Sixth Place South, and back to Columbus, detectives returned to the Mitchells' Munson Drive home, where the wife consented to let them search it, Hogan said.

In the backyard, a chained pit bull barked and snarled at them, she said.

"As soon as we entered the yard, he was very aggressive," she said, and officers feared the dog would get loose.

It was in the backyard that detectives saw a pistol on a concrete pad under an air-conditioning unit, Hogan said. It was a Lorcin brand .380-caliber semi-automatic with a live round in its chamber and four in its clip, she said.

Police traced the gun to a Birmingham, Ala., woman who bought it from a pawn shop in 1993, Hogan said, but found no record of it after that.

Also in the backyard officers found a white T-shirt with a black nylon cap rolled up inside it, she said. A witness testifying Monday said he saw a man in a white T-shirt run from Brown's cab up Munson Drive, toward where Mitchell lived.

Hogan told the court that in the cab police found a .380-caliber bullet casing under the driver's seat -- the same brand of ammunition as bullets in the gun that came from the Mitchells' backyard.

Brown was shot through the back of the head on his right side -- leaving a hole and gunpowder on the "fisherman's hat" he wore -- with the bullet exiting his left eye, Hogan said.

Investigators got a warrant for Mitchell's arrest the day they seized the gun, and Fort Benning military police found him on the Army post that evening and surrendered him to Columbus police, Hogan testified.

As detectives questioned him the night of Sept. 24, 2012, Mitchell admitted he took the cab from the Motel 6 to Legacy Estates to see a friend who turned out not to be home, so he told Brown to take him back to Columbus. Brown first drove back to the Motel 6 before Mitchell directed him to Benning Hills.

Mitchell told police he got out of the cab at Shelby Street and Munson Drive and walked home, but later stepped outside his house and noticed the cab was still down the street, so he walked back to the vehicle, where he noticed the driver appeared unconscious with blood on his shirt.

But instead of calling 911, Mitchell went back home, he told officers. He said he went for a walk, paid someone $5 for a pack of cigarettes and later got a ride to Fort Benning, where security at the gate did not ask for his ID because he was in the back seat.

On post he visited a friend who was still in the service, he told police, and borrowed $220 from his host before the MPs showed up to arrest him. At some point during the day, he gave a woman $40 to give to his wife, he said.

Hogan said that when police questioned Mitchell's friend on post, he told them he'd given Mitchell his bank card and code so Mitchell could withdraw $20. The friend said he was unaware Mitchell had withdrawn $200 more.

Under defense attorney Will Kirby's cross-examination, Hogan corrected earlier testimony that police had found only two $20 bills on Brown's body, indicating he may have been robbed of cash he collected from earlier fares. Police actually found $87 more on Brown, whose wife told them he typically made $100-$200 a night, Hogan said.

The trial resumes today in Judge Art Smith III's Government Center courtroom.

This story was originally published August 4, 2015 at 6:55 PM with the headline "Detective tells how police tracked down murder suspect ."