CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Officials investigating the murder of a pregnant 15-year-old gunned down while waiting for the school bus have named a suspect in the case.
And the attorney of the victim's adoptive brother Royce Mitchell says the new developments mean he deserves a new hearing to get out of prison. Police have called Mitchell a person of interest in Tiffany Wright's killing.
In a Dec. 1 motion, Claire Rauscher, Mitchell's attorney, said the chief of the Mecklenburg District Attorney's Office's Homicide Unit notified her on Nov. 30 that homicide detectives now consider Adrian Powell a suspect.
Tiffany, a Hawthorne High School student, was shot dead in September while waiting for her school bus. Powell was in a sexual relationship with Tiffany, and relocated from Charlotte to Buffalo, N.Y., after the murder, according to court documents.
Tiffany also said she'd had sex with Mitchell twice. Her statement, taped by a detective a month before her death, was played in court last month. The detective testified that she believed Tiffany. And Tiffany's foster mother added heft by detailing what the girl had called her deep dark secret about Mitchell.
On Nov. 25, a federal judge sent Royce Mitchell back to prison for 30 months for violating his parole. The judge said he believed the story told on tape by Tiffany. That was statutory rape, the judge found, because Mitchell is 36 and Tiffany was 15.
Even though Mitchell wasn't convicted of a crime, U.S. Chief District Judge Bob Conrad found that Tiffany's allegations were likely true - which meant Mitchell had violated the terms of his 2007 release from federal prison for a previous robbery.
In a Dec. 1 motion, Mitchell's attorney asserts there are serious doubts about Tiffany's testimony, now that Powell is considered a suspect. The motion moved to re-open Mitchell's parole hearing.
In a response a day later, lawyers from the U.S. Attorney's Office said Mitchell's defense lawyers already knew that homicide detectives were investigating Powell.
They also said Powell's involvement in the case doesn't mean Mitchell should be released.
The purpose of the supervised release hearing was to determine whether or not Royce Mitchell had sexual intercourse with Tiffany Wright in February 2009, the response states.
That CMPD may consider Adrian Powell a suspect in Wright's murder and that he may be the father of her child have no bearing on whether or not Royce Mitchell had sex with Tiffany Wright.
