John Jefferson
Insets, from left: Krystal Walton, (WXIN) Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy John Durm (Marion County Sheriff’s Office) and Orlando Mitchell (Marion County Sheriff’s Office). Background: The location where Mitchell crashed and was returned to custody (WXIN).
An Indiana man was convicted of gunning down his girlfriend and the mother of his child outside a day care even as he still faces a murder charge for choking a deputy with a set of handcuffs while trying to escape pretrial custody.
Orlando Mitchell was convicted of murder and invasion of privacy in the death of Krystal Walton, 32, prosecutors announced. Mitchell is also accused of killing Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy John Durm while the defendant was waiting for trial in the Walton case. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the Durm case. Trial is set for March 7, while his sentencing in the Walton case is set for April 1.
“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,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said.
Law&Crime previously reported about the bloodshed that began on Sept. 16, 2022. An armed Mitchell waited for Walton to arrive at a day care, then hid and waited for her to come back outside. As she walked to the driver’s side of her vehicle, Mitchell quickly ran up and pulled the trigger seven times leaving her suffering from three gunshot wounds, prosecutors said.
He then fled in a red Dodge Avenger with front-end damage.
Witnesses told police they heard gunshots and saw the suspect in a black sweatshirt and black pants with bright yellow pockets holding a gun.
Mitchell’s mother arrived on the scene and agreed to speak with detectives, saying her son had made recent threats, telling her, “If he couldn’t see his son, she wasn’t going to be in his life either,” officials said.
Mitchell was quickly arrested after police got a 911 call from a person at a bus stop saying the suspect from the shooting nearby was there. The caller provided the same description the witnesses had after the shooting, prosecutors said.
At that location, police saw Mitchell wearing all black and walking toward his red, damaged vehicle.
When officers got out of their vehicles, they noticed he had been holding a rifle. They shot him in the leg when he refused to drop the weapon, officials said.
Mitchell allegedly killed Durm about nine months later while in custody. On July 10, 2023, Following a hospital visit, Mitchell allegedly used the chain connecting his handcuffs to strangle Durm in a jail sally port before taking off in Durm’s sheriff’s van. He crashed the van before he was taken back into custody about 30 minutes later, according to a press release from the Marion County Sheriff’s Office. Durm died at a hospital. Mitchell was hospitalized before being charged with Durm’s killing.
According to a probable cause affidavit obtained by local Fox affiliate WXIN, the attack on Durm was caught by the detention center’s surveillance cameras. The document states that Durm arrived at the detention center’s sally port, which is the secured entry and exit of the prison, and parked the transport van. Durm then walked around the van and opened the door to let a handcuffed Mitchell out.
Mitchell then reportedly positioned himself behind the deputy and “raised his hands above Durm’s head and placed them around Durm’s neck.” The two men then fell to the ground, and Mitchell used the chain connecting his two wrist braces to choke Durm, which he continued doing “until Durm quits moving,” WXIN reported.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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