YNOT – The son of adult filmmaking pioneer Jim Mitchell faces life in prison after his Tuesday conviction on first-degree murder charges. A Marin County, Calif., jury returned the verdict against James Raphael Mitchell, 29, following two days of deliberations.
Mitchell also was found guilty of kidnapping, child endangerment, child abduction, domestic violence and stalking. All the charges arose from the 2009 bludgeoning death of Mitchell’s ex-girlfriend, Danielle Keller, 29, and the subsequent kidnapping of the couple’s then-one-year-old daughter.
According to court transcripts and police reports, Mitchell, a Philadelphia resident, beat Keller to death with a baseball bat outside the Keller family home in Novato, Calif., while the woman held Mitchell’s daughter in her arms. The crime occurred July 12, 2009 — the baby’s first birthday. Witnesses testified the repeated blows were severe enough to leave an imprint of Keller’s skull in the lawn.
Mitchell then scooped up his crying child and fled in a car, only to be apprehended five hours later when police traced his cell phone signal to the place where his vehicle ran out of gas. The baby was unharmed.
During his trial, Mitchell testified he tried to save Keller from an assault by two other men who arrived uninvited during the child’s birthday celebration. He said he took his daughter to protect her from her mother’s alleged assailants.
The jury found reason to believe the prosecution’s story: that Keller’s death was the unfortunate conclusion of a series of increasingly violent attacks on Keller by Mitchell.
The sentencing phase of Mitchell’s trial, set to begin Aug. 16, will determine how much time he spends behind bars. He faces 34 years to life, but will be eligible for parole.
Ironically, Mitchell’s conviction came almost four years to the day after his father, Jim Mitchell, 63, suffered a fatal heart attack at his Sonoma County ranch. In 1991, the elder Mitchell began a three-year sentence in San Quentin after conviction of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his younger brother, Artie Mitchell. The brothers owned and operated the infamous O’Farrell Theater in San Francisco, a popular and controversial adult movie venue in the 1970s. In addition to running the theater and several strip clubs, the Mitchell brothers also produced the 1972 Marilyn Chambers star vehicle Behind the Green Door, The Resurrection of Eve, Autobiography of a Flea and Sodom and Gomorrah.
