After years of legal twists and courtroom do-overs, a Genesee County jury on Wednesday again found 64-year-old Fedrico Genaldo Simon guilty of second-degree murder in the 2019 killing of 67-year-old Dolphis Mitchell. The new verdict in Flint follows an appeals court decision that threw out Simon’s first conviction and sent the case back for a retrial. Prosecutors said Mitchell suffered severe blunt-force injuries to his head and body, the kind of attack that has haunted his family as the case wound through the courts.
How Mitchell Was Found
According to prosecutors, it was Mitchell’s sister and niece who made the grim discovery during a welfare check at his Schaffer Street home, finding his body near the front door with blood in the kitchen, hallway and living room, and a bloody hammer in the bedroom, according to WNEM. The Genesee County Prosecutor’s Office said the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by blunt-force trauma. Investigators also reported locating a black rubber ring near the scene that they said could fit into a pressure-cooker lid.
Forensic Evidence And The Case Against Simon
Prosecutors told jurors that DNA taken from the bloody hammer and a pressure-cooker lid at the scene matched Simon, and that phone records showed he was the last person to text Mitchell before his death, according to CBS Detroit. They also said Simon left Michigan for Texas after investigators contacted him for an interview. At trial, Simon testified that he found Mitchell’s body and placed the pressure-cooker lid on the kitchen counter, while prosecutors argued that both the lid and the hammer were used to beat Mitchell.
Appeals, Remand And A New Trial
Simon was first convicted in 2022, but the Michigan Court of Appeals later reversed that conviction and remanded the case for a new trial after defense challenges to the jury selection process, according to court records, including the panel’s order cited on Leagle. That ruling cleared the path for the retrial that led to this week’s verdict. Attorneys on both sides have repeatedly sparred over procedural decisions that stretched the case over several years.
Prosecutor’s Statement And Next Steps
"Today's verdict will not bring Mr. Mitchell back but, it is justice for him and his family," Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton said in a statement, according to CBS Detroit. Leyton said he hopes the decision offers Mitchell’s relatives some measure of closure after years of litigation. It was not immediately clear when Simon will be sentenced.
Legal Note
Under Michigan law, second-degree murder can be punished by life in prison or by a term of years set by the sentencing judge, according to the Michigan Legislature’s statute MCL 750.317. That law gives courts broad discretion when deciding how much time a defendant will serve for a second-degree murder conviction.
