Sword and Scale - Episode 117

Episode Date: June 17, 2018

During the early morning hours of September 22nd, 2010, 13-year-old Alexis Mitchell awoke to the sight of her father looming over her and wearing a Halloween mask. His hands were around her neck, but he let up after she elbowed and bit him. Either having passed out or fallen asleep again thinking it was all a dream, Alexis eventually woke again up to the sound of screaming. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sort and scale contains adult themes and violence and is not intended for all audiences Listener discretion is advised We don't know what's going on. Hello and welcome to season 5 episode 117 of Sword and Scale, a show that reveals that the worst monsters are real. This is our last episode before summer break, so we've picked something that we think will adequately terrify you and leave you with a significant amount of trauma and mental anguish until we get back. And that will be in mid-July for all of you keeping score at home. It feels like a lot of you have been catching up anyway.

This is the first season where we've put out shows every week and there's a lot to go through. Especially since nowadays you have a lot more choices in the form of true crime podcasts and entertainment. Back in 2014, there was pretty much us and forensic files, speaking of which, a lot of you have been asking about the TV show that we've hinted at a lot. And I can't really say much about it still, but rest assured that we are scheduled to start filming this month.

So all I can say is yay, stay tuned. Of course, if you feel like you're still not getting enough, head on over to our Patreon, there will be 30 full-length episodes by the time you hear this episode on the regular feed, 30 episodes of plus, which range from 30 minutes to an hour, their new stories you haven't heard told in the same distinct, unmatched, sword-and-scale style, all hosted by me and available instantly for just five bucks a month. Support your favorite podcast. That's what makes us able to keep doing this, your support. You can boycott an advertiser, you can't boycott half a million fans.

Just go to patreon.com, slash sword and scale scale and pledge your five bucks for some fantastically terrifying premium content. Thank you and on with a shout. Our egos can be our worst enemy. In college, I had a friend named Rich. He had a buddy who would hang out with us often. I'll call him Steve. Steve was kind of, how should I say this? He was kind of a dorky guy.

I mean, I liked him a lot. He was really nice, overly polite, always smiling and joking. And like us, he had cool hobbies like racing and music that we would often talk about. Well, Rich went up to college a few hours away in Tampa. And one day, we decided to go visit him. Steve was going to drive, and we'd spend the weekend at Rich's place drinking and hanging out like old times. The Saturday after we arrived, we went over to the clubhouse at Rich's apartment complex. They had a pool table there.

We decided to play a little and have some more beer. We'd already been drinking quite a bit. I'll just be honest, we were kind of sloshed. But we were just joking around and having what I thought was a great time. In good spirits. Being three healthy, twenty something year old males, somehow the topic shifted to talking about girls. As it often does. Steve volunteered that he was kind of down about the fact that he hadn't met a girl in a long time, and he hadn't had a serious girlfriend in several years. Rich and I were kind of trying to make him feel better, although neither of us really had a girlfriend at the time either. But Steve seemed to get more and more depressed, the more we talked.

He said something derogatory about himself, and I tried once again to make him feel better. I said something like, don't worry about it man, as soon as you stop focusing on it, I'm sure you'll meet someone. That isn't a verbatim quote. It has been several years since the incident, but it does encapsulate the general sentiment. I was just trying to be nice, supportive, a good friend. But something had suddenly, irrevocably, snapped. Steve went from 0 to 60. He snapped in a way I've never seen before or since, and I hope I never see again. He took his pool queue, and suddenly he smashed it against the corner of the billiard table

as hard as he could. He then pointed the now sharp half-stick at my face aggressively and shouted fuck you man, fuck you! For a minute there, I was sure he was about to stab me. Death by pool queue. where I was sure he was about to stab me. Death by Poolecue. Shitty way to go. But then instead, he just stormed off. I think he cried a little bit. I'm not sure. To this day, Rich and I still bring it up every now and then, and wonder what the fuck

happened in his mind that day. What could cause someone to snap like that, suddenly, seemingly unprovoked? I think it was ego. I think he didn't want to be told by someone like me what to think or how to act. Maybe he saw me as inferior in his own mind. And the thought that someone inferior would be giving him relationship advice finally made that depression morph into rage. In any case, a few hours later he came back and apologized but never really explained.

That drive home the next day really sucked. This is Joseph Mitchell. He remembers going to bed on September 21, 2010, at around 8.30 pm. The next thing he can recall is waking up in bed at Duke University Hospital. Do you remember telling doctors at Duke University that you ran away from home at a young age about ten years old. I did run away from home several times. And you made your way to with other young men to the state of Ohio Cleveland. No sir. And from there you made your way to Utah. No sir.

And you had ten years old? Yes. No sir. And from there you made your way to Utah. No, sir. At ten years old? Yes. No, sir. And there you made your way to Hawaii. No, sir. Where you were raised by friends on them. No, sir. And that's... And then you call also tell them down that you play football

and baseball at the University of Hawaii. No sir. Joe insists that he can't remember saying any of this, that he can't remember any of his interactions since the evening of the 21st. Do you recall two psychiatrists who do have committed a talk here on the 2nd or 27th? No I do not.

Do you recall two do the psychiatrists to talk to you on the 23rd. You know, I do that. Who's the first person you would call as you actually woke up having any kind of meaningful conversation? You? Kind of. And before that time, did you know why you were in hospital? No, I didn't know. Did you know that you were going to be charged with any type of criminal offense?

No, I didn't know. Were you meant to? No. Do you remember anything at all about September 27, 2010? No, I didn't. At the time of this testimony, it is March of 2015, and a lot has changed since Joe woke up in the hospital on September of 2010. It's been nearly five years since Joe last spoke to Christine. What's your current relationship with Christine? I'm a seasonal expert. It's been nearly five years since Joe Last spoke to Christine.

Tell the jury what your relationship with Christine was like back in 2002. It wasn't the best, because I was an employee. I tried to do as much as I could by myself, but I try to detect my family from everything. And yes, there were times I didn't talk to her, there were times that I became silent. But overall, our relationship was good because the worst things that I got seemed like the better we Seems like we grew together more when When things became bad, you know, and thankfully started getting bad. They seem though we became a Tire family

Haranada came a tighter a tighter couple What were your feelings locked towards Christine back in 2002. I love my way. You still not hit it? Is there any tissue to throw down? Yes I do. Seems. Before things fell apart, Joan Christine had three kids together. Lexi, their eldest, was their only daughter.

Then came Devon. And in February of 2006, they gave birth to their youngest child, Blake. Blake, he was on the asked. In that January, Christina said she wanted one more child. We were kind of off and on, defense with this child. So someone, I would say, all right, and in some months, she would say, man, and we would go back and fall. But Christine's favorite number is three.

And we always knew we would want to have the kids. So when she told me to use pregnant, because I've one extra word, where I wanted them to be, I was a little upset. I wouldn't say upset. I was, I didn't know if it was right the right time for us that I would get. I didn't know if it was right time for a single kid. But all the time, it all worked out. Except, it didn't work out. Or at the very least, not for long. I noticed a new direct examination when I asked you to tell us about the blade that you would speak about him in the present tense. Do you know what

I mean when I say present tense? Yes I do. Because to me he's still here and I haven't. I know I would never harm my children. So it's up for me to come for a hand in it that Blakey's not here. On September 21, 2010, in the morning when you were working on volleyball pictures for Lexi's volleyball team, at that moment on the 21st, did you have any plan to harm any member of your family? No, I didn't know. That after no one of your magnificent football trades for the upcoming wing unit, did you have any plan to hurt your kids or your wife or anybody in household? No, I didn't.

When you went to bed on September 21st,, did you have a meeting planned to harm yourself or anyone in your house? No, I didn't. Tuesday, September 21, 2010, Hillsboro, North Carolina. Christine Mitchell headed to bed at around 8.30 pm. Her husband of 12 years, Joe Mitchell, had already fallen asleep. Did you go to sleep? Yes. And did you, were you awakened at any time later?

And? Yes, sir. And actually, were you actually awakened before 9 o'clock? Yes. And how far were you awakened? The kids came into the room missing a night. And? Oh, I'm sorry.

I asked, let's see, which put like the informing, I was tired. Is that something you would normally do? Yes. So you had been, that's how I could've been a sleep for a long time. No. And then you know what time it was when they came in

the second night? Yeah, I do, because it was 8.45, because just there was a bit of a few minutes early. I remember thinking that. And I didn't have to tell them, get to bed. Now after they went out, did you go, you go back to bed or go back to sleep? Yes.

Christine went back to sleep. But at some point during the night, her 13-year-old daughter Lexi woke her up again. Do you remember being awake again? Yes. And how are you awaken later? Lexi throwing the door open. And she said Daddy's trying to hurt us. And what did you do?

I jumped up right down the hall and I said where is he? He said he's in the office and I said, where is he? She said, he's in the office. So I went to the office. Worried that Joe might be having a nervous breakdown, Christine went over to the office to try to talk to him. I tried to get in and then door shut and then I heard the clock, the click of the lock. I just tried to show them my way in and bang. I couldn't get in.

Christine continued to try to get her husband to open the door. But it seemed as though he was actively trying to keep her out. I was bang on the door. I kept trying to show them the door. And I know I heard him hit, but fall against the door and slide down. And I said, I thought it was some type of an anxiety and a tackle, some sort. He opened him not to do this now,

that this wasn't the time things were looking on. So after you were not able to get in, what did you do? Prior to that I had to succeed. To get the boys and put them in my room so they'd be together and I knew what they would be. I saw her at my side and side... walked down the hall. Holded a blanket. Four-year-old Blake was the Mitchell's youngest child. Now, after a moment, I don't know the time. I don't know, it was a minute, and I don't know, it was 30 seconds. It's my head, it's a...

a chick-to-baby. I ran in my room. Like, see, I don't want my pillow. I was scared to touch him with my purse because he didn't look great. I touched his arm. He did not fit right. So I picked him up, I put him on the ground, put the dead back, start a CPR. Christine's father, Pete Paralini, lived in the house with the Mitchell family.

On the evening of the 21st, he had arrived home just before midnight. I came back with 10 to 12. I remember saying to myself that I can't drink any water after 12 because I had high surgery in the morning. So, when I was all nervous about the high surgery, they decided that I was going to take a sleeping pulse. I took one little sip of water, laid down in bed, and then the ruckus stopped at upstairs, which I'd never heard before.

Just a lot of running around, trying to start to investigate, when I investigated, when upstairs, my daughter was at the office, Joe's office door, trying to push it in, and she said something to the fact that, this is not the time to do anything like this. I didn't understand what was going on. So I said, do you want me to call the police? And she says no. Lexi Petsby, the lady in Stuff's Assault happened.

And I said, this is, this and stuff just started to happen and I said this is this is I got to call the police. I started calling the police and as I'm calling the police. I decided They had plaguing downstairs My daughter was trying to miss her first day to him and he was Like a dog. Pete called 911 at around 12.30 a.m. Stand now in the one which emergency?

There's something going on with a young boy and my son-in-law. We need help. We need ambulance and police. Police. Okay. We have a dearly emergency. There's a young boy, my grand son. Four years old. We can't wake him up. The father is locked up in a room. We don't know what's going on. Everybody screaming.

And tell me what's going on. I don't know. My daughter's up there screaming. She has been in his study. He won't come out. And now there's a young boy. His son, four years old, we can't wake him up. In the background of the call, you can hear Christine screaming

as she tries desperately to wake her son up. Sir, how old is your grandson? My grandson is four years old. My daughter is trying to break into a door. We don't know if he's alive or not alive. We don't know what's going on. OK, can you use it if you can't wake your grandson. Are you asked to close to him? I'm not. I'm downstairs because I have to get my phone. I can go upstairs. Okay. Where are you trying to wake him up from? Is he

in the room with the mail? Hold on. Hold on. No. He's in another bedroom. On my daughter's bed. Who doesn't know he's dead? Christine, having heard Pete on the phone with 911, brought Blake down to the living room to continue CPR. Sorry, are you still on the phone? I'm sorry, now I can see you. My daughter's very upset. You're yelling at me. Okay, what's going on with the little boy? We don't know. He's the equal heron. Okay, is he breathing?

Why did he do that? He thinks the husband did something. We don't know. Okay, that is the baby breathing. Is the baby breathing? No. No. She knows the MS and stuff like that.

She's trying to do something. We're very upset. We, we, I'm sorry, we do need a whole lot of help here. Pete tries to remain calm, but the reality of the situation suddenly catches up to him. My grandson, my daughter is an extra, and because she's in the baby's dead, that's what she thinks.

She's not breathing. He's completely liplished. And, sir. Sir? Sir, ma'am. Sir. at some point Pete goes across the street to ask for help from one of the neighbors, Cynthia Ross, who is a registered nurse. I saw Blake lying in the floor with Christine holding him, and I believe she was doing chest compressions, and I saw Devin Olex sustain their crying, and Pete was there, and I knew not only when I was on the phone,

and so I immediately got down and started doing chest compressions. Okay. And what condition do you remember, Blake being in? You know, a nurse coming into a situation, you know, you want to ask what happened, but I just knew he wasn't breathing. My assumption was he fell or he fell out of bed or he choked on something. You know, I just, I knew that he just wasn't breathing and that's Christine had assessed

him. So I just began chest impressions and I kept thinking to myself, he's going to start breathing. You know, he's going to start breathing. He's going to be okay. Cynthia continued giving CPR, counting out sets of 30 chest compressions followed by two breaths until first responders arrived. So they were first two people that came and they were sitting up and headed to

Fibulator and at some point something was said about me continuing to stop and they said no you're doing great just keep doing what you're doing and so they were setting up the defibrillator and they got the pads and we shot them and continued compressions and I continued to do it and I remember during that time of the defibrillator and they got the pads and we shocked him and continued compression to not continue to do it. And I remember during that time too, a sheriff came in and was asking Christine, was anybody else in the house? And then when she said, yes, Joseph, you don't have husbands upstairs.

And at that point I was like, I knew he had, he was an MT before, and I'm thinking, why am I sitting here doing this of his, he's in the house? And then that's when the sheriff upstairs said, and there's all these people that start coming around. And I was still doing chest compressions and the sheriff went up and knocked on the door. And no one answered and he said, I'm gonna knock the store down when he did. And at that point, he said, I'm going to lock the store down and he did.

And at that point he yelled, I need help up here now. And I'm sitting there doing chest compressions. And I look over and my husband is at the door with a structure. And I'm thinking to myself with a heck, you know, it's, and then at that point more people came and took over. But I remember doing chest compressions and Christine standing there with her kids saying, save my baby, save my baby. And I just knew I'm going to save your baby. Like I wasn't emotional, I just felt like I could do this.

At 12.58am, paramedics arrived at the Mitchell Residence and continued working on Blake. A short time later, Blake was transported to the Duke University hospital. When you got to the hospital that you get to see Blake again, yes. The medical staff was unable to reestablish a heartbeat, and at 144am, resuscitation attempts were ended. An autopsy would later reveal that the cause of death was exphyxiation. In my opinion, the cause of death in this case was due to asphyxia or the lack of oxygen to his brain. And is if you can explain to the jury what asphyxia is. That's when for whatever reason, either because the airway is

included and somehow in the person cannot bring in air to oxygenate the blood, or if the blood flow to the brain is stopped in some way, that causes lack of oxygen to the brain. And of course the brain is very sensitive and it requires oxygen almost continually to continue to function properly. When the oxygen is not supplied to the brain, death can occur very quickly. While all of this had been playing out on the main room of the Mitchell home, Joe was still inside the office upstairs. You you didn't personally see Joe at any point when you were downstairs in that house. I did not think he was in the house. Durham County Sheriff's Deputy Chris Vermillion was helping to provide medical attention when he heard what he would later describe as a crashing

sound coming from the upper level of the home. And so I heard you heard crashing sound. What did you do? I went upstairs and turned to the left and I saw Deputy Wicker there at the door of the bedroom. What appeared to be the bedroom? I noticed the door was cracked. I asked Deputy Wicker what happened and he said, well I turned open the door was cracked. I asked Deputy Weber what happened. And he said, well, I tried to open the door. The door slammed back on him. And between the two of us, we pushed the door open slightly. Five, six inches, I put my head in there and saw,

I guess Mr. Mitchell leaned up against the back of the door with his legs slayed outwards. There's a knife in his right hand, pulled a blood. I don't know what you're telling Deputy Weggard and he looks like he's dead with that amount of blood. So Deputy Weggard said, okay, he went downstairs. I stayed upstairs at the door. And I kept pushing on it. And finally moved it out of the way enough.

I squeezed inside and kicked the knife off towards a desk that was in the room. And when you were able to get in here to the room, what condition did you find Mr. Metro Life? I was unconscious. There was three stab wounds to the sternum area. There was two small ones and a larger one. And a large slice to the left side of his neck.

And I guess that's where all the blood came from. I was standing in. And how would you describe the amount of blood? It was a lot of blood. It didn't look like it was even soaked in the carpet anymore. There was so much. Based on the amount of blood, Deputy Vermillion initially assumed that Joe Mitchell was dead. But after observing that Joe's chest was still rising and falling, the deputy helped

carry him downstairs on a stretcher. We took him outside down the front steps and he was placed in the front yard. There was only one ambulance and they put the child in that one. They had to wait to call another ambulance to take Mr. Mitchell to the hospital. Joe was taken to the hospital where he would undergo surgery for self-inflicted wounds. Meanwhile, Blake's two other siblings, 10-year-old Devon and 13-year-old Alexis, had been taken over the neighbor's house. At about 2.50 a.m., Corporal Len Roberts went over to talk with them and figure out what happened.

Corporal Roberts interviewed Devon first and noted the following. Devon said he was asleep and he woke up because his dad's hands were over his mouth. Then his dad put his hands around his throat. Devon said his dad left, but it was too dark to see if he was still in the room. He said his dad came back and did the same thing. Put his hands over his mouth. Then his dad left again and came back and did the same thing, put his hands over his mouth. Then it said his dad left again, came back and did the same thing. Then it said the third time he started trying to get his dad's hands away from his mouth and started yelling. Bevin said Alexis came in the room and said I'm here, Devon. He said his dad started turning the light off and on and he could see his dad wearing a yellow jacket and gloves.

Then and said, uh, the yellow jacket belongs to his mom. He said she wears it in the winter when she takes them to school. Then and then said he saw Alexis run out of the room and go into his mom's room and saw his dad go into the office. Then and said he saw Papa and I couldn't prevent this. He's Pete, uh, come upstairs and saw his mom try to get into the office but she couldn't get in. He said his mom tried to wake Blake up but he wouldn't wake up. Dad didn't say his mom did CP all the Blake. Corporal Roberts then spoke with Lexie.

She said she woke up to her dad with his hands on her throat pushing her against the wall. She said she elbowed him and bit his finger. She said he left and she thought it must it was a dream. Alexis said she then her Blake scream but figured it was allergies because it's done that before. She thought her mom would get up to care for him. Then Alexis said she heard a scream stop get off me, get off me. She said she ran into the boy's room, saw her dad with his hands over her dad and his mouth. Alexa said she tried to get her dad off of him but her dad grabbed her around her mouth again. She said she bit him again and ran to get her mom. Alexa said she yelled to

her mom, mom come help dad's attacking us. She said her mom ran to try to get into the office. Alexis said her mom told her to get Blake. She said she went to pick up Blake and she thought he was just asleep and she laid him on her mom's bed. Alexis said her mom came back into the room and started doing CP on Blake. Joe Mitchell strangled his four-year-old son, attacked his two other children, and then locked himself in his office. He attempted to commit suicide, stabbing himself three times in the chest, and then slitting his own throat. But what could have caused this unprovoked,

unimaginably violent attack? What could make a man like this suddenly snap? He wasn't Joe Mitchell. It was like he was possessed. That is what Cynthia Ross, the neighbor who came over to give Blake CPR, told reporters after the attack. Pete, Joe's father-in-law, would tell investigators that Joe must have snapped. You see, Joe Mitchell was not known to be a violent person prior to the attack. In fact, according to his family and friends, he was quite the opposite, making it difficult for those who knew him to comprehend how this calm, non-confrontational man that they

knew so well could have done something like this. In an interview with investigators, Joe's wife Christine Woodstate, I think in 15 years I can recall him raising his voice maybe 2 or 3 times. Think about that. After being married to Joe for over a decade and raising 3 kids with him, Christine could only recall him raising his voice 2 or 3 times. On the surface, that might seem ideal. After all, nobody wants to argue all

the time. But there was a deeper problem. According to Christine, instead of getting into an argument, Joe would simply ignore her. fights? No. And when you would get ignored, how long was it curious being that you would get bullied? A week, some else. This wasn't just how Joe dealt with problems in his marriage. This seems to have been his approach toward all of life's problems, putting on a happy face and pretending that everything was going to be fine. But as we all know, most of life's problems don't solve themselves. And when they aren't addressed, they get worse and worse and worse until they reach a breaking point. By late 2010, Joe, the family's primary source of income had been out of work for about two years. They were broke. He was the man of the household if you were and was unemployed and struggling to find

a job. This period of unemployment was just the latest in a long string of financial difficulties dating back to at least 2001. Would you or your family go without because of these difficult in-payment bills? Yes. And what types of things would you go with out? How would you like that? Well, for first, you'd pick and choose which bills. That was the first thing.

And then any extra curricular activities for the kids didn't happen. Many things they asked for, and we had to tell them no. Between 2008 and 2010, Joe picked up a few odd jobs. Christine did some day care work, but it wasn't enough to stay afloat. The bills piled up, and eventually the bank foreclosed on their home. On September 7, 2010, two weeks before the death of Blake Mitchell, a real estate agent left a notice on the Mitchell's door to see if the occupants had vacated.

That same day, Joe called the agent to inform her that his family had not made any preparations to leave the home. She advised him that he had two options. Option one, if the family remained on the property, they would be evicted. Option two, if they agreed to leave on their own, they could participate in a cash for keys program in which the bank would offer them money in exchange for vacating the property within 14 days. Joe told the real estate agent that he would rather do the cash for Kees' program.

Obviously. She informed him that anyone over the age of 18 who lived in the house would need to sign the agreement, meaning that both Christine and her father Pete would need to come in for a meeting. Joe told her that Christine and Pete were out of town for a couple of weeks, so he scheduled a meeting for September 18th when Christine and Pete would be back in town. The thing is, they never left town in the first place. During the month of September 2000, 2010, did you go out of town or stay away from home for any significant period of time?

No. Would you go on any vacation? No. Or visit friends or family at the house. No. The 18th came around and Joe showed up to the meeting alone. He told the real estate agent that his father-in-law had moved out of the house, which was untrue. He also said that he would have Christine sign the agreement and send it over via fax, but Christine was never or the program catch for keys? No.

Did you have any conversations at all with the defendant about catch for keys or move out of the bridge? Joe had led Christine to believe that the bank was going to let them keep the house. As far as the status of the house on September 21, 2010, what did you believe the status to be? In the process of being fixed. And when you say, in the process of being fixed, what do you mean by that? That we, that he was, the bank was working with us,

and that everything would be fine. At the time that you, that you know that the, that the house had been foreclosed. No. Why did you talk to a sting about this cash for Keynes? Or did one of them ask, did you have no idea about Teller? I didn't. Why?

Again, I didn't. I didn't want to, she had enough worries. She worried about me a lot and she had enough worries and I didn't want her to worry about something else. I chose to worry about that. Same way I didn't tell Pete about things. I didn worries and I didn't want him to worry about something else. I chose to worry about that. Same way I didn't tell Pete about things. I didn't want him to worry. I wanted him just to live their lives.

Just, and I would figure it out because I've always had. I would figure it out. Joe had avoided this problem as long as he possibly could, procrastinating the inevitable. This was the end of the road. His family was going to be evicted, and there was nothing he could do to make it go away. But shockingly, Joe was still finding ways to ignore the problem. My philosophy was to say, my philosophy was as long as they don't have the house, we're good to go, because they don't have the house. As long as we can come up with a game plan, my game plan, as faulty as it may seem, was

to, when they asked me the sign for that cash for keeping, I said, oh sure, because that would buy us more time because it needed three signatures and I only gave them on and I knew they needed two other signatures so I knew we had time. And worst case scenario, if she said, you guys are big, they could still have to go through the whole addiction process. So we had lots of time. I know everybody's making it seem like it was do or die that day. And I don't think it was do or die. Well, I know it wasn't do or die that day. But I mean, come to 20 seconds, what did you think was going on?

No, I think nothing was going to happen. You had no intentions of moving out of all the time. No. As I've seen him describe, one might not have realized during most of those two years that they were in trouble. Because he just doesn't manifest evidence of it. He over-controls unpleasant emotional states. He actually, during one of my interviews with

him, described himself as compartmentalizing. He used the word compartmentalize, problem in his life. And I could tell you based on a psychiatric review of all the descriptions and of his behaviors, that that is certainly an accurate description. He by nature of his personality, he assumes to a unreasonable, my opinion, degree that everything will be fine and workout. He puts on a good face regardless of what is happening. He does not in a fashion is typical, actually deal with the problems.

So perhaps problems that he's even caused himself. He puts them in a box, pushes them aside, and charges on taking care of his family, coaching his kids, and assumes that everything will be just hunky-dory when many individuals perhaps myself included would be nearly in a state of panic. even though he would never outwardly express it. The stress of the situation was getting to Joe. Throughout the year 2010, had you had trouble sleeping? Yes.

Tell us your about that. My sleep kind is where total disarray. They were nights. The family knew I had problem sleeping, so I would try to go to sleep for everybody. So I can get too sleep, and then they would come and kiss me and make very gently, because if they don't hold up, I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep. That was a big problem. And stand asleep was another problem.

So I looked to my wife, who's my doctor? That's my doctor. And we would come up with all these different plans on how to get sleep. You know, she had, she would look things up on internet and all this kind of stuff and the melatonin and we make some with, we make some melatonin with, I remember having a wine cooler one night and we did some, we make some melatonin with, I mean, if I happen to want to cool the one night and we did a lot of different things to try to get me to sleep, not work with. But you tried, like, you said, no, it's not gonna be the other over the counter.

You tried, Ben and Drill. There was, there was another of what kind of melt we tried to, and they were, anything that had a sleep date to it, we tried it. By the summer of 2010, Joe was hardly sleeping at all. Tell us about how many hours of dying for sleep. This summer, I probably, doing this summer, probably only slept maybe one or two hours because during the summer we had

it was a long summer because summer is all-star season for baseball. Demon never plays all-star season because he rather swim. That year he swam and he played all-star. So our days are really, really hectic. So between trying to keep the schedules together and line-ups and swim meets and necktimes stuff, if I slept two hours a night, I think I slept a lot. We were, it was rough.

And Chris, we would let you do whatever I can do it. If I can do it, someone should always let me just do it. And never bother. Were there some nights where you slept at the last two hours? There was some nights I didn't sleep at all. Joe was being consumed by the stress of his financial situation. His life was about to come crashing down and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He was about to be exposed because on September 22nd it was going to mark a day of no return.

And even if he wasn't going to be exposed on September 22nd, September 22nd was going to be a day that triggered the events that would have led to his exposure. Because once the eviction proceedings began, which as you heard, they would have begun, it's only a matter of time before his family knows only a matter of time and a very short matter of time before the neighborhood knows, before his children knows. And simply put, the defendant just couldn't let that happen. When Joe Mitchell regained consciousness at Duke University Hospital, after he had killed his son, he claimed that he didn't remember anything since he went to bed on September 21st. He denied current suicidal ideation, intent or plan.

He denied homicidal ideation. In regard to his insight, he denied any awareness or memory of his self-entry or the events related to his son's death. This is Dr. Grace Throl, a psychiatrist who evaluated Joe at the hospital in the days following the attack. Patient denies ever having thoughts that life is not worth living, or thoughts of ending his life, or any ideas that his family would be better off without him. The patient was asked how he was dealing with the news of his son's death. He states that everything is, quote, surreal, unquote.

When the psychiatry team commented that he did not seem sad or distraught Mr. Mitchell stated that he will be able to really believe it when he sees his family. He has not yet spoken to his wife or children. He wouldn't have an opportunity to speak to his wife until his trial, four and a half years later. Joe was charged with first degree murder, two counts of attempted first degree murder, and a count of second degree murder for good measure. When his case went to trial in February of 2015,

he pleaded not guilty. If you ever had any ill will in your heart towards Alexis, no, if you ever had any malice in your heart or mind towards a glasses, never ever. Did you have any ill will in your heart ever towards death? Never ever had any violence in your heart or mind towards a dead. No. Jared did you love life? I love my son. Have you ever had any ill will in your heart towards blood ever? Never. Have you ever had any mouth in your heart or mind or Joe's defense team admitted that Joe killed Blake and attacked his two other children, but they also argued that he was not aware of his actions on the night of September 21

and 22nd, and therefore could not be found guilty of murder. This might be sounding a lot like an insanity defense, but instead of claiming insanity, Joe's defense team was claiming automatism, which is a legal term for a sleepwalking defense. First, there's no prior violence toward his wife and kids, none. You can hear that from us about what he's had probably. This is just a case they've had two arguments, maybe, in 15 years. There's no case here, substance abuse, which is normally commonly found when there's an intentional suicide, suicide event. The strangulation only occurs in about 3% of cases of non-infinance, not in infants. New illness is always a mother suffering from postpartum depression. So

if you take those out, those are commonly most strangulation drowns, if you take those out, only 3% provide strangostrangulation. So what we're looking at is, does this fit the state theory, because the state theory is the attempt to kill two children, kill one, and then attempted to kill themselves, a fellow-sized suicide situation? She does it fit. No working with you, which I already talked about that one.

And then a different method was used with respect to the child and human. So, an 87% of the cases study is the same method of killing for both the filocyte and suicide. It just doesn't fit. There's no very planning. Usually in a filocyte-silocyte situation, you see some advanced planning. Here is Dr. George Corvin, a forensic psychiatrist who testified for the defense. So, by answering this criteria, did you come up with a formal medical diagnosis? Dr. Corvin testified that Joe was likely suffering from a rare disorder known as a disturbance of, if you will, a combination of parts of your brain affected or being awake, parts of your brain affected or being still asleep, and engaging in conduct that is unusual, but for forensic purposes unknown consciously to the person engaging in that conduct. Have you ever heard that you shouldn't try to wake up a sleep walker?

Well, here's why. What the literature demonstrates is that those individuals tend to get up from bed, and when I say get up from bed, I don't mean wake up, but I mean get out of the bed, and they will tend to be engaging in these sort of non-significant events until something happens, until somebody tries to wake them up, or there's a loud noise, or somebody tries to interrupt what they're doing, and then not so much in children. Children, this is not frequently observed. Sleepwalking is more frequently observed in children, but not with violence associated,

but when adults have these non-groom behavior disorders, but not with violence associated, but when adults have these non-groom behavior disorders, they have a higher incidence, statistically, of engaging in violence. When they do engage in violence, I think it tends to occur once they encounter an interruption, allow noise, somebody stops, and touches, and grabs, something like that. And then the active violence or aggression will begin. In other words, if Joe was sleepwalking, any interruption could have triggered a violent outburst. As we already know, the attack began just after Christine's father, Pete Paralini, arrived home, presumably making some noise on his way in. Now with respect to the next volume,

the loud noise or attempt to away contrary by the slip-ball turn. Could that loud noise be, for example, a loud muffler noise? That loud noise could be loud car. It could be garage door sounds. It could be the sound of somebody entering a house and shutting a door.

And is it, do you recall from your view of the evidence that this event happened upstairs just shortly after Mr. Parentini came home that night? That is what I have understood from the records, yes. According to Dr. Corvin, sleepwalking could also provide an explanation for Joe's inability to recall the attack after the fact. And so given that the part of the brain that would encode those memories is still asleep, they don't have memory of the events that follow. There's a lot of skeptics out there, I mean, you're probably one of them.

This all sounds too convenient to be true, right? While as crazy as this theory might seem, there was a lot of evidence to back it up. For starters, some of the details of the attack were just plain bizarre. When Joe attacked his children, he was wearing a yellow fleece jacket that belonged to his wife and a pair of gardening gloves. He had also gone into a storage space to retrieve a Halloween mask, which he left on Lexi's bed. According to Devon, his father exhibited repetitive behavior excuse me, to, I believe it was a

fact of Robbins that his father is at the life switch, in turn to life switch off and on. I don't really. Dude, what do you recall about the life switch is coming on the rules? The investigative records contained, I believe, two references to the defendant turning the light switch per death and turning the light switch on and off and in a separate reference to him flashing the lights. Do you recall the reference from doing the hospital? I did.

And what was that? That he was flashing the lights on and off. In addition to flashing the lights on and off, Joe repeatedly entered and exited both bedrooms, going in a Lexi's room twice and Devon's room three times. Then when Devon and Lexi pushed back by biting or elbowing their father, he got up and left. This raises an important question that the prosecution struggled to answer. If Joe wasn't sleepwalking, why are Devon and Lexi still alive?

Devon and Lexi were 10 and 13 years old. Joe was a full grown man. If he'd actually made up his mind that he was going to kill them, why would they really be able to fight him off so easily? Dr. Corvin also pointed out that sleepwalkers are unable to perceive pain, which would explain how Joe was able to stab himself over and over again, something that could otherwise be excruciatingly difficult. about not registering pain when they heard themselves. You can use the term analgesia to explain that for me. Analgesia is essentially, well, I think, the term analgesia,

that they do not perceive pain and being induced upon them, in this case, perhaps by himself. Again, being asleep effectively, you're conscious and separated from the rest of your brain. Terrible injuries can be sustained or self-inflicted, and yet you, there's no recognition of that pain, you know, react or scream out, and so can do very damaging things to yourself and just sort of stab yourself and just sit there and do it, where as most people would have some difficulty in doing so, because of just the pain that's involved. And to not react to that pain is the sort of thing that is seen in parasomias, which

is that these people can inflict serious damage to themselves and seem not to even feel it. Drim County EMS records show that after the suicide attempt, Joe registered a zero on the pain scale. Joe was not reacting to pain whatsoever. He had lost all consciousness due to hypervalemic shock or rapid blood loss. This wouldn't be surprising, but Joe's EMS records also show that he was exhibiting

normal vital signs. Are those findings inconsistent with someone who is unconscious as a result of its blood loss? Yes. Do you have an opinion as to whether Mr. Mitchell was unconscious as a result of blood loss? It is not opinion that his lack of consciousness as detailed as medical records could not be due to hypervoling your blood loss. Something other than blood loss had caused Joe to lose consciousness. In a pair of song here, that's where he asked this, is the person who conscious? Cleaning cleanly and forensically during an act of hair-somnia person is not conscious.

In light of all the evidence, the possibility that Joe was unconscious during the attack was seeming less and less absurd. 2010 were voluntary. I did have a session of opinion. What does that mean? I do not think that they were voluntarily undertaken. They were not voluntarily. Based upon your analysis, observations, diagnosis, and misdemeanored, do you believe that he was able to plan his actions or carry out plans during the evening and early morning hours of September 21, 2010 to September 27, 2010. What's that opinion?

So I think that he was rendered medically and neurologically unable to engage in those planning, the planning of those behaviors and then in fact the forensic interpretation of the evidence is that he in fact did not plan those behaviors. Based upon your analysis, observations and diagnosis of Mr. Mitchell, do you have an opinion that's what if he was capable of formulating this specific intent to kill anyone on the evening in an early morning hours of September 21st in second, in 2010? I have such an opinion. What is that? I do not have to do with capable of forming this specific intent. Of course, Joe's entire defense rested on the premise that he was telling the truth

about what he could and could not remember. And the prosecution was quick to point out that Joe didn't have a great track record of honesty. The foreclosure wasn't the only thing that Joe had lied to his wife about. Did you defend him? No, I never tell you anything about his upbringing and family. Yes. And what did he tell him? That he was born in New York within a few years. He was sent off.

Yeah, sent off? Yes, that he said that him and his siblings were all put in foster care. Yeah. And after that few years, did he tell you where he grew up? I don't know. Yes. And what did he say? He said he grew up in Hawaii. Yeah. Joe told his wife, among others, that he had grown up in Hawaii and attended the University of Hawaii, where he played Division I football and baseball. As of the release of this episode, if you go to LinkedIn and find Joseph A. Mitchell from

Raleigh Durham, North Carolina, you will see that he attended the Schiddler College of Business at the University of Hawaii from 1983 to 1988. But despite what he listed on his resume, and despite what he told his family and friends Joe did not grow up in Hawaii and he did not have a college degree No Did you ever tell your wife that you Understand Yes. Why? You have to understand something. At that time, she was the, she was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. And I wanted to make up for help when it makes her, she was proud of me. So I told that, did you ever tell you grow up in the wine? Yes, I never wanted

to be exposed to the light that I had. And just, and no matter where we went, it seemed like that light seemed to follow us. And I tried this healer as much as I could from my past so we can have a greater future. These aren't exactly white lies. Joe had been lying to his wife about his background for over a decade. But even still, there's a huge difference between lying about where you went to college and faking amnesia to cover up a murder.

As for the latter, there are psychological tests to determine whether or not someone is malingering or feigning memory loss. What were the results with that test? Did they indicate that he was not faking or malingrune memory or cognitive impairment? According to Dr. Corvin, it remains a very remote possibility that Mr. Mitchell's conduct represented an intentional act of filicide that he has lied to us about his memories of those events, but it's unlikely. The prosecution argued that Joe was motivated by financial stress, and that a murder suicide was his way out of a difficult situation.

But stress and sleep deprivation are also triggers for sleepwalking. So that left the jury with the following question. Did stress cause Joe Mitchell to snap? Or did stress cause Joe Mitchell to sleepwalk? We might never be able to answer that question with a hundred percent certainty. But on March 11th, 2015, the jury came to the decision that at the very least there was reasonable doubt that Joe Mitchell intended to kill his children. We the 12 members of the jury unanimously finally fined to be not guilty of first degree murder. Joe Mitchell was found not guilty on all counts. After hearing the verdict, Christine began hyperventilating and exclaiming,

I failed. I couldn't save him, referring to her son. She later had to be wheeled out of the courthouse on a stretcher, and her ex-husband, who took the life of their four-year-old son, is now a free man. And that does it for this terrifying episode of Sword and Scale. Sweet dreams. Make sure you make that mortgage payment this month. In all seriousness, I still don't know what to think of this. What do you think? How would you've decided on that jury?

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