Jury finds Guy Mitchell not guilty in charges linked to beating death

MANSFIELD - Defense attorney Justin Weatherly believed in Guy Mitchell.

"I knew Guy was innocent the second I met him, but the charges made it very difficult to defend," he said.

A jury deliberated for four hours over the course of two days before finding Mitchell, 27, not guilty Thursday of aiding and abetting murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with the February beating death of Brandon Ewers, 42.

"As far as him being a principal offender, we had our defense to that one relatively quickly," Weatherly said. "Complicity was significantly more complicated."

Mitchell cried when Richland County Common Pleas Judge Phil Naumoff read the verdict. Throughout the trial, he has had a loyal group of supporters, each wearing a white ribbon.

Mitchell had been in jail since his Feb. 12 arrest. He was being held on a $750,000 bond.

The seven-woman, five-man jury reached its verdict around 11:30 Thursday morning. The announcement of the verdict was delayed for Mitchell to change out of his county jail jumpsuit and into a suit and tie and be transported to the courtroom.

Before the jury entered court, Mitchell was already emotional. Court reporter Joan O'Donnell handed him a box of tissues.

His attorneys tried to encourage Mitchell. Henderson patted him on the shoulder a number of times.

Like Weatherly, Henderson said he believed in Mitchell.

"You put your heart into it," he said of preparing for the case.

Both Henderson and Weatherly, who practice in Cleveland, said they were impressed with the local common pleas court.

"I had heard it could be tough to practice in Richland County, but we found the jurors and the judge to be incredibly fair," Weatherly said.

Prosecutor Gary Bishop, who tried the case with Assistant Prosecutor Emily Hall, said the case was "difficult from the outset."

"The eyewitness never got a good look at the assailant," Bishop said. 

The 22-year-old man who was driving Ewers the night of the assault also told several lies, both to police and on the witness stand.

Ewers was assaulted after he apparently got into an altercation with his girlfriend, Amanda Cole.

Cole told police she didn't remember anything, though she was injured. The state contends her son, Henry Gassaway, and nephew, Eddie Cole, along with Mitchell, planned to assault Ewers in retaliation.

Gassaway and Cole were suspects. The state dismissed the charges against them, but Bishop previously said they could be "exposed to potential prosecution" down the line.

He repeated that assertion Thursday afternoon.

"We've been considering that for some time and will continue to assess that," the prosecutor said. "Obviously, there remains a question as to who the principal offender was. The majority of the evidence points toward Guy Mitchell. At the same time, the jury found that it was not enough."

The state had planned to call Gassaway and Cole as witnesses. Wearing shirts and ties, both showed up for court Wednesday morning with their respective attorneys. 

Bishop would not grant them immunity for their testimony, however, and opted not to call them to the witness stand.

"They wouldn't give us the truth," the prosecutor said. "They maintained they didn't know this (Ewers' death) was going to happen, which flies in the face of the evidence."

Ewers was beaten as he was about to exit a vehicle in the 100 block of Oxford Avenue the night of Feb. 4. He suffered multiple brain bleeds. According to the autopsy, the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

He was taken off life support four days after the attack.

Bishop met with Ewers' mother after the verdict. Kathy Johnson tearfully testified early in the trial.

"Our hearts go out to Mr. Ewers' family," the prosecutor said.

mcaudill@gannett.com

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Twitter: @MNJCaudill