Granted immunity by the prosecution, Mitchell offered his version of the July 17 events during preliminary hearings on Jan. 26 and 31 and explained that he was drunk and asleep in the passenger's seat in the moments before Christopher Hollis allegedly shot Willis-Starbuck from the moving vehicle.
He said under oath that he did not see the shooting and did not see either Hollis or the driver Christopher Wilson with a gun.
Mitchell testified that he spent the evening of July 17 driving around to parties with the suspects. At the final party the trio attended, held at a Berkeley student cooperative, Hollis received a call from Willis-Starbuck asking him to come to her aid. Mitchell said he remembered Wilson saying, "Let's roll. Chris Hollis wants to check up on Meleia."
"I don't remember the exact words, but it was something to that effect," Mitchell said.
Witnesses confirmed Willis-Starbuck phoned close friend Hollis during an argument with seven Berkeley football players near the California State University campus and asked him to "bring the heat."
Mitchell, "good and drunk" on Bacardi rum, said he fell asleep in the car and didn't look to see who was firing when he heard gunshots.
"I remember waking up and asking if that was fireworks," he said. "Chris Hollis was like, 'No, that was shooting."
In the January 26 hearing, a witness who dialed 911 asserted Hollis' arm was parallel to the ground and sticking straight out when he shot Willis-Starbuck, potentially undermining defense attorney John Burris's claim that Hollis only meant to scare the football players by shooting into the air.
Mitchell said he did not remember either discussing the shooting with his friends after it occurred or what was said in the car beforehand. It wasn't until the next morning, he said, that Willis told him that "the worst possible thing has happened...Meleia's dead."
Mitchell's sparse account disappointed followers of the case, who had hoped for a crucial eyewitness testimony. Not even the Berkeley police knew what to expect when Mitchell took the stand, as they were unable to obtain his statement when he left on a previously planned trip to Panama several days after the shooting.
Following the advice of his attorney Lewis Romero, he declined to give a statement when he returned to the country.
Carrie Panetta, the deputy district attorney prosecuting the case, clarified in an interview with The Dartmouth that Mitchell was not granted full immunity but rather "use immunity."
"Anything he testifies to can't be used against him, but he can still be prosecuted for perjury," Panetta said. Use immunity also means he can be prosecuted for his involvement in Willis-Starbuck's death using evidence from other sources.
Panetta declined to comment on whether such action would be taken.
The .38 caliber handgun Hollis allegedly used to shoot Willis-Starbuck has not been recovered, but Panetta said a missing murder weapon, in this case, will not hinder the case.
Previous conflicts in attorneys schedules led Judge Carlos Ynostroza to delay his decision on whether the case will go to trial until after tomorrow's hearing, and possibly a subsequent hearing Feb. 9.
