Police say an Indianapolis man had a serious crash out over not being able to see his son and took his anger out on the child’s mother outside the baby’s daycare. The horrifying scene led him to meet his fate under the law.
Orlando Mitchell, 36, was sentenced Tuesday, April 1 in connection to a 2022 shooting that occurred outside Charity Child Care located in Marion County, Ind. Police say Mitchell staked out the daycare waiting for his girlfriend, Krystal Walton, to arrive. Police said he then ambushed the woman, shot her multiple times with a semi-automatic rifle and left her for dead. The two shared a 1-year-old son, which was allegedly their point of contention.
Mitchell’s mother told police she cut off communication with her son because the last time they spoke, he allegedly threatened to kill Walton and himself in a murder-suicide, per court documents obtained by WTHR.
“If he couldn’t see his son, she wasn’t gonna be in his life either,” she allegedly told the police, per court documents.
Mitchell’s mother then gave the police the description of his car, leading to his arrest hours later, the report says. Officers’ body cameras captured the chaotic scene as they tried to detain him. Mitchell allegedly shouted, “I shot that b***h in the face!” while being examined by EMS, per court documents.
The shooting appeared to be the grand finale of a long line of domestic disputes between the two: At the time of the incident, police say Mitchell had an active warrant for his arrest after violating the protection order Walton filed against him. Prior to the incident, he was accused of forcing himself into Walton’s home after she refused to let him pick up his son a day early than they planned, per the report.
That day, Walton told the cops Mitchell threatened her saying, “If you call the police, it will be the last thing you do,” per the report.
Even before that, Mitchell pleaded guilty to domestic battery for strangling Walton while she was still pregnant, the report says. Tuesday, the court decided to put away Mitchell (almost) for good, sentencing him to 66 years in prison for murder, per Law&Crime.