Indianapolis Man Found Guilty of Killing Ex-Girlfriend Outside of a Daycare
Source: WISH-TV
INDIANAPOLIS–A man accused of strangling and killing a Marion County deputy in 2023 has been found guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend in 2022.
On Wednesday, 35-year-old Orlando Mitchell was found guilty of murder and invasion of privacy for the death of 32-year-old Krystal Walton.
Police say Mitchell shot Walton, the mother of his child, outside of a daycare at Holmes Avenue and 10th Street on Sept. 16, 2022. Court documents say Mitchell waited for Walton to arrive at the daycare, hid, and waited for her to come back outside. When she walked outside, Mitchell ran up and pulled the trigger on his gun seven times and left her suffering with several gunshot wounds. He drove away in a Red Dodge Avenger with front end damage.
According to Mitchell’s mother, his relationship with Walton had always been “volatile.” His mother said that Mitchell had made threats prior to that saying, “If he couldn’t see his son, she wasn’t going to be in his life either.”
IMPD officers later found Mitchell walking to the red vehicle. He was holding a rifle. Police say they told him to drop the rifle, but he refused, so officers fired their guns and struck Mitchell in the leg.
“Today, we are grateful to the jury for returning this verdict, and although Krystal is no longer here, her family and children will carry on in her memory with the same resilience and grace as Krystal, as such a loving mother would have wanted them to,” said Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears.
Mitchell’s sentencing for Walton’s murder is April 1 at 9 am.
In July 2023, Mitchell strangled Marion County Deputy John Durm, 61, to death in the sally port of the Marion County Criminal Justice Center.
After attacking Durm, court documents say Mitchell took control of a transport van and fled, driving through a fence before crashing into a utility port not far from the jail. The whole incident was caught on video.
A pretrial conference for Durm’s murder is scheduled for March 7.
Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty.
