ATHENS, Tenn. — A hearing next week in the Mitchell Delashmitt murder case could lead to a trial by summer, according to a McMinn County prosecutor.
Assistant District Attorney Jim Stutts said the hearing is scheduled for Feb. 9 in McMinn County Criminal Court.
Mr. Delashmitt is accused of killing his 14-month old daughter, Angel, in 2003. Her body was found floating in a pond and Mr. Delashmitt confessed to sexually assaulting and shaking her.
He remained in jail until last year, when Judge Carroll Ross threw out the confession. Judge Ross ruled that law officers violated Mr. Delashmitt’s constitutional rights when they obtained the confession.
In August, the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals upheld Judge Ross. In the memorandum, Judge James Curwood Witt Jr. wrote that “(t)he record clearly establishes that the statement was obtained in violation of the defendant’s right to counsel under both the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.”
Prosecutors considered asking the state Supreme Court to review the case, but Mr. Stutts said the “state attorney general elected not to appeal the ruling.”
Without the confession, prosecutors will depend on other evidence, including an autopsy report, Mr. Stutts said.
The autopsy by Dr. Ron Toolsie, then the Bradley County medical examiner, also has been attacked. A forensic pathologist at the University of Tennessee and state Chief Medical Examiner Bruce Levy have disputed Dr. Toolsie’s findings of sexual assault and shaking. Both said their review of the autopsy convinced them the child drowned.
Mr. Delashmitt’s attorney, John Eldridge, said he expects a trial date to be set at the hearing, but he had no other comment.
“I don’t have any more information than you do,” Mr. Eldridge said.
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