Guilty Verdict In Trial For Man Accused Of Beating Roommate Into A Coma
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – In the fifth day of trial for a man accused of severely beating his roommate he met on Craigslist, the jury decided his fate.
Byron Mitchell was found guilty of attempted first degree murder and false imprisonment.
Prosecutors say he choked, bashed, and stabbed Danielle Jones on Valentine's Day 2016.
The victim's mother said this isn't justice to their family since Jones has permanent health problems.
"We didn't know that with brain injuries, you can get well and then you can get bad again. We were so grateful. We almost reached three years and then it just went south," Aimee Cabo Nikolov said.
She also said with her daughter taking the stand last week and reliving those tense moments didn't help.
"It was very difficult to take the stand but life has been difficult for her since," Nikolov said.
While on the stand, Jones cried after she said she did her homework while getting a roommate and never expected things to end this way.
"I met him at Bayside. I asked him to bring a resume so that I can look into and do like a background check," Jones said while on the stand.
During closing arguments, defense attorneys tried one last time to get the jury to see their way and claim prosecutors failed to show proof to bring a guilty verdict.
"If you have to work hard to make their evidence fit these elements, that's not guilty folks," the defense attorney said. "You need to do your job as an individual juror."
Jones became roommates with Mitchell after she posted an ad on Craigslist back in 2016.
Prosecutors say the night police responded, Mitchell tried to hide evidence.
"He attempted to clean up to hide the evidence to make the clean to make the scene look the way he wanted to fit his story," a prosecutor said.
Prosecutors say he also deleted text messages from his phone.
"That contact in addition to all of the text messages and communications that he had with her and all of the call communications that he had with her," a prosecutor said.
Jones was beaten so badly, she was in coma.
Since then, she has recovered physically but there's still more she has to do.
Defense attorneys say Mitchell was defending himself. They say Jones came at their client with a knife. Prosecutors argue Mitchell was obsessed with his new roommate.
It took the jury less than two hours to agree on a verdict.