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Home > Blogs > Dayton Courts: Legal and crime news > Archives > 2010 > March > 08 > Entry
Man sentenced to 32 years to life in social worker’s death
By Lou Grieco, Staff Writer
DAYTON - An alleged gang member convicted of killing a social worker during a September robbery attempt was sentenced Monday, March 8, to 32 years to life in prison.
“The Bible teaches us to love our enemy,” the Rev. Herman Branham, uncle of Stephen Branham, told Cordell Mitchell Jr. “We don’t hate you, but we hate the crime you committed against our loved one.”
Mitchell, 22, pleaded guilty Feb. 3 to all indicted charges, including aggravated murder, two counts of aggravated robbery and one count of possessing a firearm after a felony conviction.
He also pleaded guilty to both indicted charges in connection with his Sept. 24 arrest: carrying a concealed weapon and possessing a firearm after a felony conviction.
Judge Timothy O’Connell noted that Mitchell had a prior conviction for felonious assault, as well as a juvenile record. Mitchell was on parole for the felonious assault at the time of Stephen Branham’s slaying.
“Up until this morning you had shown no remorse for this event,” O’Connell said.
Herman Branham told Mitchell that his nephew’s death left a “void” and “excruciating pain,” for the victim’s family. He said that the Branhams would pray for Mitchell and his family.
Mitchell thanked the Branham family for their forgiveness and said that he turned everything over to the Lord.
“Everything is truly up to him,” Mitchell said. “He know my heart and he know that I didn’t mean for this stuff to happen.”
But O’Connell noted that a witness reported hearing a gunshot, followed by someone yelling “die,” then followed by more gunshots.
“This is an atrocious act,” O’Connell said. “It’s horrible. It’s unimaginable in its depth and the pain that it causes.
At Mitchell’s plea hearing last month, O’Connell said that Mitchell could face a maximum of 70 years and six months.
Branham was “well-respected” and “comes from a good family,” assistant county prosecutor David Franceschelli said after the plea hearing. “He was attacked before he could even get out of his vehicle.”
Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer said in September that Mitchell confessed to the crime and handed over what authorities believe is the murder weapon.
Mitchell was arrested Sept. 24 by deputies and the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force at 915 Steele Ave. in Dayton.
Police say Mitchell and another man tried to rob Branham near Branham’s residence in the 4300 block of Springcreek Drive in the early hours of Sept. 7.
Branham, a well-regarded social worker who facilitated classes on anger management for violent offenders, had just returned from a local club when Mitchell confronted him, Plummer said.
Detectives at first ruled out robbery as a motive since Branham’s wallet and car keys were found near his body. But Plummer said — after his deputies interviewed Mitchell — that it appeared Branham was an innocent victim killed “for nothing.”
Mitchell, Plummer said, is a member of the Balla Boy Mafia, a small gang with ties to the Dayton View Hustlers, which has emerged in the last year as the most violent gang in the area.
Mitchell has a violent criminal past that includes a felonious assault with a deadly weapon conviction in April 2007, court records show. He was released from prison in December 2008 after serving a two-year sentence for the crime.
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