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Suspect in Charlotte teen's death to lose probation
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Published: September 17, 2009
CHARLOTTE
Federal prosecutors are preparing documents to revoke Royce Mitchell's probation, which means he'll stay in the Mecklenburg jail until state charges of raping his 15-year-old adopted sister are dealt with, authorities said.
Mitchell, 36, is listed as a person of interest in the death of Tiffany Wright, who was eight months pregnant when she was shot in the head at a school bus stop Monday morning, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Her baby was successfully delivered at Carolinas Medical Center later that day. The hospital has stopped releasing information about the infant.
After the shooting, Mitchell was charged with statutory rape and taking indecent liberties with a minor.
Those charges constitute probation violations, and a federal warrant is being prepared in New York that "will keep him from getting out of jail," said Greg Forest, chief of the federal probation office in Charlotte.
He was imprisoned on a drug-trafficking charge in New York in 1999. He was released in April 2007 and sentenced to four years' probation, Forest said.
Mitchell has a bond hearing scheduled for Sept. 25 on the Charlotte rape charges.
The announcement by federal prosecutors came on the same day that Charlotte officials fired Mitchell from his job in the street maintenance department.
Mitchell had worked for the city since 2007 and earned $25,808 a year.
City officials said that their background checks didn't catch his previous criminal convictions.
Kim McMillan of the City of Charlotte said that "after administrative review, the City of Charlotte has terminated the employment of Royce Mitchell for falsifying his employment application, which is in violation of city policy."
McMillan did not say in what way Mitchell falsified his application. But city officials said Wednesday that as a result of the Mitchell case, they plan to expand background checks to include a search of federal offenses around the country.
Until now, the city's background checks have included local and state records, and federal records in the Justice Department's Western North Carolina District.
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