The Deck - Corey A. Mitchell (2 of Spades, Ohio)

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

Our card this week is Corey A. Mitchell, the 10 of Spades from Ohio.May 29th, 2010 was supposed to be a normal Saturday for 34-year-old, single dad Corey and his 11-year-old twins, but a brazen masked gunman had other plans. Authorities in Dayton, Ohio, have spent the last 13 years trying to figure out who was behind that mask.  To learn more about The Deck, visit www.thedeckpodcast.com. To apply for the Cold Case Playing Cards grant through Season of Justice, visit www.seasonofjustice.org Let us deal you in… follow The Deck on social media.Instagram: @thedeckpodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @thedeckpodcast_ | @audiochuckFacebook: /TheDeckPodcast | /audiochuckllc The Deck is hosted by Ashley Flowers. Instagram: @ashleyflowersTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieTwitter: @Ash_FlowersFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Follow The Deck on social media and join Ashley’s community by texting [phone] to stay up to date on what's new!

Our card this week is Corey A. Mitchell, the two of spades from Ohio. May 29, 2010 was supposed to be a normal Saturday for 34-year-old single-dad Corey and his 11-year-old twins. But a brazen masked gunman had other plans. Authorities in Dayton, Ohio have spent the last 13 years trying to figure out who was behind that mask. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is The Deck. The The Swelltering Spring Sun had just set as Cory and his 11-year-old twins, who will call Ayesha and Don, arrived home after running some Sunday errands.

Cory parallel parked their car where they normally did in front of an abandoned residence right across the street from their house. Pizza box in hand, they all hopped out of the car and were expecting to run inside to settle in for the evening, but instead, they found themselves running for another reason. A masked man flashing a gun emerged from the overgrown lawn of the abandoned house and fired off a single shot. Corey yelled for Aisha and Don to run, and as they did, they heard the gunman say something to their father that would be seared into their minds forever. CM Dub, that's Cory's nickname. All at once, the gunman began firing wildly at the trio, striking Aisha in the leg.

As she crumpled to the ground in pain, she watched as the gunman turned and targeted her father. He has hit multiple times in the legs and the arms he goes down. The suspect comes over, stands over top of him in execution style, fire his multiple shots into him. After littering the scene and Cory's body with countless rounds, the shooter fled on foot as neighbors sprang into action, notifying police and rushing to the street to see what was going on. Within minutes, an officer was on scene with Cory, who was somehow clinging to life.

Here's Detective Nathan Vai describing what the officer witnessed. He was bleeding heavily. He was laying on his back and he approached Mr. Mitchell, noticed that he was having difficulty breathing and he asked immediately who shot you and Mitchell stated I don't know. Another officer asked Mitchell to describe the suspect who had shot him and he responded again by saying I don't know and then they asked if he had been having any problems with anyone and he also stated I don't know.

Cory was quickly slipping away into unconsciousness, as EMTs loaded him into the ambulance, and right away, first responders were alerted to their second victim. They heard a yelling that was coming directly behind them. They turned around and saw Isha at that time. She was being helped down the street, but she had blood running down her left leg. Upon coming over to her, they realized that she'd suffered a gunshot

below her left knee. As Isha was being treated, authorities began working with her and her brother, Don, who miraculously was unharmed. They gave a description saying to him as a blackmail about the size and weight of their father. He was wearing a mask on his face, but they could only see his eyes.

The mask did not cover his head, and they could see that he was bald. He was wearing a white long-sleeved t-shirt, black pants, black boots, and black gloves. As responding officers were getting the scene under control, they received word that their aggravated assault case was officially a homicide. Cory had been pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the hospital.

That's when the investigation kicked into high gear. Crime scene technicians scoured the area collecting evidence, and there were two key items that they discovered. First and foremost, shell casings and lots of them. Secondly, a tea bottle that they had found in the grass of the abandoned house. They sent the bottle off for DNA testing, hoping they could pull a profile from it. And for the shell casings, they entered those into niban, which could offer more immediate results.

But unfortunately, there were no hits. Other officers were canvassing the neighborhood with little luck as well. There was only one woman willing to talk to them or admit that she even saw anything, but she wasn't able to offer much. She heard several gunshots and her daughter had been outside, so she came to check on her seven-year-old

daughter and her daughter told her that somebody had been shot. She thought originally her daughter was joking until she looked down the street and saw a man laying in the street and a small girl screaming and crying. And then she went down the road to help the little girl. It seemed the only eye witness to the shooting were Corey's own kids. And their statements alone made it clear to investigators that this slang was far from random because of what the shooter had said to Cory, calling out his nickname, C.M. Dub. That was the indication he either knew him personally or at least was affiliated with him enough

to know this was the targeted person that he came to have contact with. When investigators took one look at their files, they only grew more convinced that someone specifically had it out for Cory. In the past month alone, there had been two separate police reports filed by Cory. The first incident occurred just three weeks before the murder. I'll let Detective Vi give you the details. May 8th at 6.45 in the evening, Corey was coming out to get into his vehicle. And he was approached by two suspects.

They later pulled him out of the vehicle. They threw him onto the ground. One of the males said, we're going in and they pointed to a gun at him. He stayed. He began rolling on the ground away from the truck and the suspects. Toward the sidewalk as quickly as he could and the suspects fired one or two shots in his direction. The suspects fled on foot and Cory called the police.

Detective Bay said that as far as he knows, no shell casings were collected from the scene, which could mean that the suspects used a revolver, or it's possible that the responding officers that day just maybe didn't look very hard since no one was hit. Anyway, the responding officers talked with Corey and asked if he had any problems with anyone lately. And he said, actually, yeah. He stated he had some problems with an ex-girlfriend. Stayed that she had broken out the windows in his car before.

As far as I know, there wasn't much more done in that particular case from an investigative standpoint. Police weren't able to find the guys responsible, and I don't know if they even talk to this mysterious ex-girlfriend that Corey mentioned. But it wasn't long before that robbery attempt was the least of Corey's worries. Just one week later, he received some text that seemed to really spook him.

On 5.15 at about 9 o'clock in the evening, Cory called in a complaint, basically stating he was receiving threatening text messages, and he gave a specified phone number. He wanted to state that the messages contained several threats involving him, hoping he does not have any children at the individual will be seeing him soon. So vague death threats are what he was receiving, but here's the weird thing. It appears to be no follow-up with this, nobody ever had any additional contact with Mr. Mitchell related to this report. So zero follow-up done on these threats. Death threats that happened two weeks before he was gunned down outside his home in front of his children.

They didn't even try and trace the number back to anyone, or even take like, screenshots of the messages. Detective Vi was also confused as to why the ball was dropped on this, but he did kind of offer a possible explanation, though it's not an excuse. This came in as a memo. This was not actually made a crime complaint, which is very unusual. Detective I explained that a memo is a tool often used by law enforcement just to document something, especially an incident that doesn't rise to the level of an official crime, because a memo doesn't require the same follow-up, like a typical

crime report does. But in this case, by questions the decision. From what I see, this is definitely would meet the requirements for a crime report, for menacing. There was no going back and fixing what officers two weeks prior hadn't done. But investigators now understood the gravity of those messages. That they very likely could have been sent by Cory's killer, so they began trying to hunt down who that number belonged to.

Phone records were requested for the number that appeared in reference to the 515 case where Corey had received the threatening text. Problem was, this was 2010. Things like this, even today, aren't immediate, so they just had to wait. The investigation was off to a pretty slow start, and Cory's family waited with baited breath as they tried to figure out how to continue without their beloved CM Dub. Cory's mother Carol, who lived an hour away, was stuck replaying their last conversation, which happened just after the attempted robbery incident, and it was going over and over in her head. I just kept begging and please, please calm. This is the last words that I heard from his voice. He said, Mom, if something happens to me, I know you've got the kid."

Carol had hoped she would never have to fulfill Corey's grim wish, but that nightmare scenario was now her reality. She took Ayesha and Don in and did what she could to fill the gaping hole that had been left in their lives. On June 4th, six days after his passing, Carol and the twins said goodbye to Cory for the final time as they laid him to rest. And it was there, at Cory's funeral, that something unexpected happened. A mysterious young woman approached Carol, claiming to have information. We were at my son's funeral, and I was sitting and this woman walked up to me, the young

girl, she looked superior to me, maybe about 19, somewhere around in their teenager 20 and whatever. And she spotted me out, I don't know, but she knew I was Cory's mom. I think she probably did, that's where we were all sitting. And she came up to me and she handed me a piece of paper. And says I know everything that happened that day. Give me a call. The woman said her name was Brandy and by the time Carol registered everything the woman said she had already walked away. My family members saw her too and so they asked me they said who, who was that? I said, I don't know. I said, but she left me this note. And I put it in my purse.

And then, when we got ready to get into limousine to go to the graveyard, I kind of turned my head and looked back at the door. And she was on the ground crying, just sobbing like a baby. After the funeral, Carol immediately turned the woman's note over to police. But when investigators gave the number a call, it was out of service. An unfortunate dead end, but far from the only threat investigators were trying to follow, because the tip floodgates by this point had opened. Remember that ex-girlfriend I talked about earlier?

The one Corey mentioned after the attempted robbery? Will it turned out, Corey wasn't the only one getting a bad vibe from her. Her information came up from numerous people who advised that we should probably look to her. And the belief was that some of the statements that were made to Corey by way of the text may have involved her. Corey's mom, Carol, was one of the people highly suspicious of this ex-girlfriend who we've been asked to call Danielle. Danielle and Corey had dated for about two, two and a half years before calling it quits just a few months before

Cory was killed. Carol told WHO that Danielle had been known to behave irrationally in the past, even going so far as to steal Cory's house keys and make copies for herself so she could pop by unannounced. I will tell you that the victim's mother and children and family were all spoken to and they conclusively stated, the only time they ever heard the victim ever in a confrontation with anybody over the phone it was always involving Danielle and that they fought off and on the phone. Corey's kids said the last argument had

happened the day of the murder like Corey had been on the phone with Danielle all day, just arguing and arguing. About what, no one seemed to know, but their breakup was still relatively fresh. Like, and they had just ended things, you know, three, four months prior. So I feel like it's reasonable to assume it had something to do with that. But we may never know, for sure. Now, with every new bit of information police learned about Danielle, their suspicions were only growing. So they tracked her down and asked her to come to the station for a chat. Here is Detective Vi reading a summary of how that interview went.

Danielle said she had last talked with him on the day of the shooting around 5pm. She supposedly called him from her phone. He told her he was getting his hair cut, and they hung up. Danielle stated she knew Corey began receiving threatening text messages on his phone. Danielle stated Mitchell did not share with her any concerns or ideas about the threats. She related he did not talk about that side of his life. She did know that he had relations with other females, and that he knew that she of his life. She didn't know that he had relations with other females,

and that he knew that she did the same. Danielle denied involvement or knowledge in the victim's death. She stated that she loved him and they had no problems with their friends with benefits arrangement. The detectives asked Danielle how she found out about Cory shooting. She related her daughter has a friend who called telling the police cars were at Cory's house. Danielle said she was at a party in Jefferson Township when she found out and her friend and brother drove her over to see what was going on. Now this stuck out to police because here she was admitting that she came to the scene the day of the murder. But a relative of quarries had told police Danielle claim she was out of town that day, so things weren't adding up.

Investiators asked Danielle what she knew about the threatening text Corey had received, and she said she knew about them but couldn't remember what they said specifically. But she had a clear memory of a suspicious text that she'd received about three months prior right around the time she and Corey broke up. She claimed it said, quote, "'You need to stay away from him or you're going to get it.'" That was not confirmed. Daniel did not know who sent it and she no longer had the message or the number. That seemed convenient. Police asked Danielle to return to the station at a later date for a polygraph, and she agreed. Police figured out who sent those threatening texts to Corey. They came from a guy

whose nickname is Mook, and believe it or not, Mook's number also appeared on Danielle's call log. Naturally, when Danielle returned to the police headquarters for the polygraph, investigators had some questions. They asked her about Muk, and Danielle claimed to not know anyone by that name. They pressed her about the call that she had received from his number, and at first she said that the number sounded familiar, but she didn't know why. But after further questioning, she admitted, okay, she did know Muk after all. And she did receive a call from his number the day of Cory's murder. But she says, it wasn't Muk on the other line. Supposedly, it was a guy who weep and ask to call Lee.

Danielle said, Lee, Muk and her brother were all good friends, so she knew the two pretty well. And she told police she'd actually seen Lee the day of the murder. And the conversation they allegedly had made investigators ears perk up. Danielle was at a ballgame. Lee drove up on a scooter and began talking to her. Danielle stated Lee asked her questions about Cory, such as if he had a gun, where did he keep it, how much money does he have. Danielle said she thought nothing

about the questions, but looking back now she believed Lee was looking to Rob Cory. When asked further, Danielle stated she had some feeling that Lee was going to Rob Cory, but she denied knowledge of setting anything in motion or that Cory was going to rob Cory, but she denied knowledge of setting anything in motion or that Cory was going to be hurt. She went on to say she did receive a phone call from Lee, using Moosephone asking her, did you see the news? He then called her back and told her, I'm through b******. Daniel's interview concluded and she was sent on her way. But I know what you're thinking, what about the polygraph, what were the results? And that's what I said too, but get this,

she wasn't given one. Like obviously they have documented that she showed up for the polygraph as planned and they had this whole big conversation with her about muck and lee, and in my mind they have every reason to want to use the polygraph to see if all this stuff that they were finding out is true or what. But today, they don't have any record of a polygraph actually happening. In fact, at the bottom of the interview summary from that day, there is a note that says, no polygraph. Detective Vi was just as confused by this as we were.

So he asked DPD polygraphist Detective Elizabeth Allie if there would be any reason why a polygraph just wouldn't be administered if someone specifically came in for one. Detective Allie said that she'd seen it before, like if there is a medical issue or the person just flat out changes their mind and refuses to submit to one. But as far as I know, neither was the case here, so why didn't it happen? Your guess is as good as mine. After Danielle's interview, investigators' sites were set on Muck, and even more so on this guy Lee. And that suspicion only grew when detectives connected Lee to a number that Danielle had

been texting, specifically these three damning messages. On May 15th, the day that we know Corey got that threatening text from Moxphone, Danielle wrote to Lee, quote, I want you to kill that N word. Three days later, on May 18th, she texted Lee's number again. Kill, kill, kill that b****. And on May 24th, she sent, kill that N word, just come into some more money. Which we took it to believe that she had come into some money and based upon that, she was trying to give him an incentive.

Armed with this information, investigators made interviewing Lee their top priority. And as it turned out, he wouldn't be hard to track down. They find out he's in jail. And ironically, he is in jail for charges of kidnapping and aggravated robbery. He commits this and is arrested on 623-2010. So we're talking, it's not even a full month, between his arrest for a separate robbery and kidnapping charge and involved a firearm. Investigators went to the county jail where he was being held and sat down for a conversation with him. At first, things were going smoothly. He was happy to provide some background information

on himself and he said that he knew Danielle and considered her a friend almost a sister. Then they moved on to Cory. He was asked if he knew the victim he stated he did not. He had never heard of him talked about. He said they knew the name Cory, but none in particular as in any individuals. It was right about this time that things took a turn. Right when investigators asked him about a little motorized scooter. You see, Lee was known to drive one of those round town, and detectives asked him if he'd

seen anyone else riding a scooter like his, or if he knew anyone who resembled him. He became nervous, and at that time he ended the interview and stated that he was no longer willing to talk. He wished to speak to an attorney. If you're scratching your head right now, I totally get it. A scooter? What does a scooter have anything to do with Cory's murder? We asked Detective I about the scooter part.

Like if maybe someone had seen a scooter nearby the scene of the shooting, or if someone had seen a suspicious guy riding a scooter after the murder, and he said, as far as he knows, no, no scooter sighting. So I'm guessing that since police knew going into the interview that Lee drove a scooter, maybe they were trying to subtly trick him into thinking that someone had seen him, or his doppelganger driving a scooter near the scene of the crime. And that's the best I've got. But regardless of what their reasoning was, their hands were now tied, and they left the Lee interview slightly more suspicious of him.

But they were also keeping an open mind for their other suspect that they had yet to chat with. Look. or their other suspect that they had yet to chat with. Look. But Muk was a bit trickier to track down because he was believed to be experiencing homelessness at the time. It took a few weeks, but they eventually made contact with him and invited him down to the station.

Investigators asked him directly about the threats he sent to Cory and he said that it wasn't him. Like, yes, of course it was his phone, but he didn't send the texts. Here's the story he told. He says he was at this party with a group of friends, including Danielle, Danielle's brother, and his daughter who will call Polly.

In the midst of all the socializing and mingling, Mook sat his phone down, and when he wasn't paying attention, Danielle had instructed Polly to grab his phone and send Corey those text messages. He did recall because he had talked to Polly's mom and Polly's mom had talked to Polly and Polly admitted that she had text Corey, those threatening statements at the direction of Danielle. Of course, police weren't just going to take M Mox word for it, so they tried to reach out

to have a chat with Polly. But when they got in touch with her mom, she said that she didn't have any contact with Polly anymore. Detective Vi said nothing in the case file clarifies why this was the case, but apparently, once again, that was that. They didn't get to speak with Polly, and they continued on with their investigation, which was quickly centering around Lee and Danielle. It seemed like all signs were pointing toward Lee being the trigger-man.

All the more, when they got his phone records, and discovered that he'd actually called Corey's number the day of the murder. So much for Lee's claims that he didn't know Cory, right? Now Lee could lie all he wanted, but there was one thing that wouldn't lie, DNA. Police gathered samples from Lee to compare to the T-bottle, but the testing was inconclusive, meaning that they weren't able to get enough DNA from the bottle to compare to Lee at all. So as suspicious as they were of him, they didn't really have a case against him. But they were building a pretty damning case against Danielle for her role in the homicide.

That winter, police visited her at work for another interview, during which she corroborated Mook's story. That okay, yes, she had instructed Polly to text Cory with McSphone, and she admitted she was mad at Cory for sleeping with other women. Now, even though Danielle was still playing the whole, I wasn't involved card, police weren't buying it. And on January 10th, she was arrested on the preliminary charge of complicity.

Now, if you're unfamiliar with that term, it's basically another way of saying aiding or abetting. After her arrest, Danielle was finally ready to come clean, specifically about the text that she'd sent to Lee. She admits that she did tell him these things. She was angry. She told investigators she believed Lee killed Cory and that her actions were to blame. But even with Danielle admitting to it, police knew they'd be fighting an uphill battle to get the charges to go through. Complicity is a hard charge because let's be honest. Beyond that, what we didn't have was anybody else under arrest for murder.

Complicities more than one. How do we have a complicity with one person? That's exactly what the grand jury must have thought, too, because they declined to indict Danielle. And just like that, she was let go. Scott free, and the charge was totally expunged from her record. Now, I'm hesitant to make too bold of a statement here, because you all know I'm a firm believer in due process, innocent until proven guilty, all of it. So if a panel of nine of my smart and capable peers decided it didn't make sense to charge Danielle with complicity, so be it. I don't want to sound like I'm questioning their decision,

but knowing what I know and everything I just told you, I just can't help but wonder what it was that made them pump the brakes and say, maybe not. But do they know something I don't know? Or do they just have a higher threshold or standard than maybe I do for evidence or testimony that they want before they charge someone. Was it purely a technicality? Like was it the fact that there was just one person they were being asked to indict for complicity?

And really in order to be complicit, you need two people. I don't know. What I do know though is that sadly that grand jury decision was really the last big movement in the case Investigators and family members have tried to keep Cory's murder in the public eye through media pushes Even putting up billboards in town, but they've gotten crickets in return DPD has far from given up though Detective Vi said they still have everything evidence wise in this case, including the T-bottle that they found at the scene.

And as technology improves, he hopes that they'll be able to pull a better DNA sample from that bottle. And hopefully, even get a match to someone, be it Lee or maybe someone who has yet to come on their radar. And there are still some people that they want to track down who might have valuable information, like Brandy, that woman who approached Carol at the funeral. And even Danielle's niece, Polly,

and remember, that's not her real name, but if this episode gets to her, she'll know who she is. This case is far from being deadlocked, and DPD is ready to run down any tips that come their way. We would look for tips that have any information whatsoever, even if it's something that they believe that we may already know, because many times the things that they know come in a certain way from a certain source, and that source might be somebody that we need to talk to. It might be information we need to corroborate and many times it'll give us just a

little bit more. Sometimes these things are kind of like painting by numbers. When they come in maybe we fill in everything that's Mark 3 and we can see maybe a little bit better what it is. But there's additional ideas even if they you may believe that they are, you know, reoccurring ideas we still would love to talk to, whomever about this. Any information, no matter how big, no matter how small, you know, send us everything. Cory's family is also nowhere near giving up the fight. Carol has spent the last 13 years turning her indescribable pain into advocacy

for those experiencing the same thing. She's been active in parents of murdered children and moms against violence, and she's connected with other advocates across the state to fight for justice. I'd always say this long, some grieving, I'm Cory's voice. I have to talk for him. And my family,

I just want to say to whoever it is, I just want you to know, you broke my heart, I went to counseling and the first thing that the therapist told me before we got started, he said, first thing I want to say to you, whoever kills your son is free. But you have a life sentence. That's both volumes. I have the life sentence. And it is life sentence. I live this daily. It's been 13 years. Carol and Cory's kids and the rest of his family all deserve answers and justice.

So if you know anything about the murder of Cory A. Mitchell, aka CM Dubb in May of 2010, or if you were the young woman who approached Carol at Corey's funeral, or if you're the girl that we're calling Paulie. Please call the Dayton Police Department cold case unit at 937-333-7109. The Deck is an audio chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit the DeckPodcast.com. So what do you think, Chuck?

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