ATHENS, Tenn. – The mother and grandmother of Angel Mae Delashmitt are agonized that the man charged with rape and murder in her 2003 death pleaded guilty Wednesday to lesser charges.
“I am not happy about what happened,” Annette Beloat, Angel’s grandmother, said after rape charges were dismissed and Mitchell Delashmitt pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and child neglect.
The McMinn County resident received a combined five-year prison sentence with nearly four years’ credit for time already served.
The sudden end of the 7-year-old case came Wednesday when prosecutors learned they had no medical evidence to back up the rape charge.
Criminal Court Judge Carroll Ross explained that the state’s medical expert, Dr. Ronald Toolsie, could not testify because his license had been suspended in Georgia and, under reciprocity laws, would be suspended in Tennessee, as well.