Did Wilton Manors man kill his sometime-boyfriend in self-defense? Jury is deliberating

A man accused of strangling and stabbing his on-again, off-again boyfriend to death in 2019 deserves to be convicted of murder and sent to prison for life, a prosecutor argued Thursday to a Broward jury.

The defendant, Michael Mitchell, 44, admits the facts against him don’t look good. A day earlier he was on the stand explaining that he killed John C. Young during a violent dispute at Young’s apartment in May 2019. But it was Young who was the aggressor, Mitchell testified.

It will be up to the jury to determine whether Mitchell’s account is credible. Prosecutor Tonya Johnson urged jurors to consider other facts that were presented during the trial. The killer tried to set the apartment on fire. Mitchell claimed Young did that, but Johnson argued that made no sense. She said Young set the fire to cover up the murder.

Young had been strangled and stabbed in the neck twice. Either wound would have been fatal, said Johnson.

Wilton Manors Police had responded to Young’s apartment on Northwest 25th Street just before 8 p.m. on May 9, 2019. Inside, they found a laundry hamper with burning clothing. Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue responded as well, and firefighters found Young inside, dead and wearing nothing but a shirt and socks, with a cut across his throat and two stab wounds in his back.

Surveillance video showed Mitchell leaving the apartment about the time of the murder wearing latex gloves with a towel over his head.

Mitchell also texted a friend warning that Young was dead and he was a suspect, only to feign shock when police later told him Young was dead, Johnson argued.

“He had to pretend to be distraught on learning John was dead,” she said.

There were also text messages sent from Young’s phone to a neighbor after Young was already dead, messages that pinned the murder on an unnamed Black drug dealer. The message declared itself to be sent on a timer: “If you get it, then something happened … If you don’t get this messages (sic) I’m ok.”

That text, prosecutors said, was sent by the defendant after Young was dead and received by the neighbor, who told investigators and the jury that he did not believe it was written by Young.

Defense lawyer Skyler Hill told the jury that Mitchell was defending himself when he killed Young and that both were drug users. Mitchell’s conduct after the killing was due to his panic and his use of meth, she said.

“We have not hidden that from you,” she said of her client’s drug use.

Odom ordered deliberations to begin shortly before 3 p.m.

Staff writer Shira Moolten contributed to this report.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4557. Follow him on Threads.net/@rafael.olmeda.

This is a developing story, so check back for updates. Click here to have breaking news alerts sent directly to your inbox.

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel