Manslaughter case against Torrance Police officers will proceed to trial

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Friday denied a defense motion that called for the dismissal of manslaughter charges brought against a current Torrance Police officer and a former officer for the 2018 on-duty killing of Christopher Deandre Mitchell, clearing the way for the case to proceed toward a trial.

Judge Sam Ohta said he carefully evaluated a variety of issues raised by the defense, held more than a year of pretrial hearings and considered higher court opinions on matters related to police uses of force before reaching the conclusion that the grand jury indictment brought against Matthew Concannon and Anthony Chavez was lawful and valid.

"For the foregoing reasons, the motions are denied," Ohta said, after reading his 36-page decision into the court record.

Ohta invited the defense attorneys to appeal the decision, and attorneys for both indicated they planned to appeal immediately.

Mitchell's mother Sherlyn was in court to hear the decision, along with a number of supporters and members of Black Lives Matter, who've spotlighted the case as an example of injustice for years.

"The fact that in this case, it was clear that they did so many things wrong leading up to it, which was ultimately what led to them killing Christopher Deandre Mitchell, it's incredibly important that we have cases like this that move forward," Sheila Bates, an organizer with Black Lives Matter, said outside court following Friday's hearing.

Concannon and former officer Chavez were indicted by a grand jury in March 2023.

The case was presented by LA County District Attorney’s Office special prosecutor Lawrence Middleton, who was hired by DA George Gascón to re-examine several police shooting cases that former DA Jackie Lacey had ruled lawful, including Mitchell's death.

The officers shot Mitchell, who was seated in the driver’s seat of a suspected stolen car, had what appeared to be a gun on the floor of the car between his legs. The gun was an air rifle.

“Christopher was the best part of me. He was my everything,” his mother, Sherlyn Haynes, told the I-Team in 2019 when she said she hoped the officers would face criminal charges.

The DA’s office under Lacey concluded in 2019 that the shooting was lawful and wrote in a case-closing memo “although the weapon was later determined to be an air rifle, the officers’ belief that the weapon was a firearm was reasonable under the circumstances.”

Mitchell’s shooting was one of four cases specifically listed by Gascón for potential re-examination while he was campaigning for office, and Gascón wrote in a campaign statement that he was troubled by the fact neither officer reported seeing a weapon before the shooting began, and one officer switched off his flashlight before firing into the car.

“These facts raise multiple questions as to the objective reasonableness of their perceptions of an imminent threat and their corresponding decision to use deadly force,” he wrote.

Middleton, a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor known for convicting the LAPD officers responsible for the Rodney King beating, said he was unable to comment on the judge's decision or the significance of the ruling.

The Mitchell case is the only prosecution Middleton has initiated since he was appointed as a special prosecutor by Gascón in 2021.

In their motions to dismiss the defense lawyers focused, in part, on Middleton's introduction of the concept of "officer created jeopardy" in his presentation of evidence to the grand jury, or the idea that the officers' pre-shooting conduct could weigh on the lawfulness of the use of deadly force.

The grand jury was presented with information that the officers rushed to confront Mitchell, rather than requesting assistance, failed to activate red and blue lights or spotlights, switched off a flashlight just before shooting, and that neither officer called out that they'd seen a gun before firing, according to the judge's decision.

Concannon and Chavez argued that was improper, because the change in California law governing the use of lethal force that allowed the consideration of events prior to the shooting itself, didn't go into effect until 2020, more than a year after Mitchell was killed.

Middleton referenced officer created jeopardy 4 times in his presentation to the grand jury, and called an expert witness to testify about it, according to Ohta's ruling, which found the discussion of 'OCJ' did not invalidate the grand jury's decision to indict.

The next pretrial hearing was set for October 3.