Teen killer who killed again as an adult sentenced to life in prison
After deliberating since Monday, a Tarrant County jury sentenced a man who started killing when he was 13 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Jurors listened to evidence in the capital murder case of Burnches Markish Mitchell, 26, for more than three weeks in the courtroom of State District Judge Scott Wisch before reaching their decision Tuesday afternoon.
Tarrant County prosecutors presented evidence during the trial showing that Mitchell has a long criminal history and is a suspect in at least a dozen other aggravated robberies in North Texas.
Jurors concluded that in one of his last aggravated robbery attempts, Mitchell shot and killed Khrystophir Scott, 27, who died days after the Jan. 27, 2017, robbery from a gunshot wound to the neck, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Scott was a customer in the Quik Sak store at 898 S. Cherry Lane in White Settlement when two men entered the store and demanded that everyone get on the ground, according to police.
Scott refused to get down and was shot. Scott was then taken to John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, where he died.
Jurors also learned that, as a juvenile, Mitchell stabbed James Fields to death on Aug. 12, 2006. Mitchell, then 13 years old, was found to be involved in delinquent behavior and was sentenced to 10 years’ confinement with the Texas Youth Commission.
Mitchell grew up in a broken home surrounded by violence, alcohol and drug abuse, according to Fred Cummings and Brett Boone, the attorneys who represented him.
Mitchell’s mother told authorities that her son stabbed the man she was living with in order to protect her from being abused. Mitchell also suffers from an anti-social personality disorder for which he has been prescribed medication, according to his attorneys.
“Not all murderers need to be executed,” Boone told the jury. “When you grow up in a war zone, it changes the way you think. Burnches is going to die in the penitentiary — we just ask you to let God decide when.”
But prosecutors, who were seeking the death penalty, pointed out that as Mitchell aged, he became worse. Mitchell is likable — he has the gift of gab, said David Alex, Tarrant County prosecutor. But that only makes him more dangerous, Alex added.
Mitchell terrorized dozens of people during a crime spree that stretched across North Texas. A bad childhood should not mitigate the number of criminal acts that have been presented to the jury, Alex said.
“The defendant knows what he’s done and he knows that he will never change,” Alex said. “Time cannot fix Burnches Mitchell.”
According to a court document filed in October:
Mitchell was identified as a gang member and adjudicated delinquent for assaulting a public servant on Jan. 15, 2010.
Mitchell was transferred to adult prison but released on parole on Feb. 13, 2013, and was discharged from parole on Nov. 7, 2016.
After his release, Mitchell was implicated in several armed robberies.
Mitchell was convicted of aggravated assault against a public servant in Hunt County, Texas, on May 30, 2017, and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Another Tarrant County jury is expected to deliberate in another death penalty trial this week in the case of Hector Acosta, who was found guilty Nov. 5 of killing his roommate Erick “Diablo” Zelaya in Arlington in 2017, then beheading him. Acosta also killed his roommate’s girlfriend, Iris Chirinos, at an Arlington home.
This story includes information from Star-Telegram archives.
