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Christopher Mitchell

Murder trial delayed in 2-year-old’s accidental shooting

By Becky Campbell
Press Staff Writer
bcampbell@johnsoncitypress.com

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A man charged with his son’s death after the toddler found a pistol and shot himself must be sentenced in federal court for possessing the weapon before a murder charge can go forward.

Christopher Alan Mitchell, 26, is charged with first-degree murder, tampering with evidence and criminal impersonation.

His preliminary hearing scheduled in Washington County General Sessions Court on Monday was delayed until next year because of the pending federal case.

He remains in federal custody until his sentencing in March on a charge of felony possession of a firearm — a .25-caliber semi-automatic pistol — which stemmed from the Jan. 11 incident that killed his 2-year-old son, Jacob Mitchell.

Mitchell has pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing the firearm but won’t be sentenced until next year.

The day Mitchell’s son found the gun, Mitchell was living at the Value Place Hotel, 174 Pinnacle Road. Johnson City police investigators said the toddler apparently got a gun from a kitchen cabinet where his father had put it.

Mitchell told Johnson City police investigators that he was asleep and heard a loud noise that sounded like a firecracker going off. When he looked toward the kitchen area of the motel room, Mitchell said he saw his son rocking back and forth on a chair, then fall off of it.

When officers arrived, Mitchell was sitting inside his pickup truck, parked behind the hotel, with the engine running.

Officers found the pistol on top of the motel’s outside electrical box. Mitchell was parked directly in front of the box, police said.

Washington County/Johnson City EMS personnel performed CPR and other life-saving procedures on the boy, but he was pronounced dead at the Johnson City Medical Center.

During the investigation, Mitchell told detectives he put the loaded weapon in a kitchen cabinet knowing that his son “had been able to get into this cabinet in the past,” according to court records.

Initially, Mitchell gave police a different name, which brought on the criminal impersonation charge.

And while Mitchell said he did not fire the shot that killed his son, Tennessee’s child neglect law allows the first-degree murder charge “as a result of aggravated child neglect for not providing a safe and secure environment and properly supervising his child while in this unsafe environment,” according to the affidavit.

Mitchell’s preliminary hearing was rescheduled for April 28. He remains in custody.