Artez Hammonds was sentenced to death by the State of Alabama for the murder of Marylin Mitchell
According to court documents Artez Hammonds would break into the home of Marylin Mitchell who would be sexually assaulted and murdered
Artez Hammonds would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
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Artez Hammonds is incarcerated at Holman Prison
Artez Hammonds Case
In the spring of 1990, Marilyn Mitchell graduated from the University of Alabama school of nursing and moved to Dothan where she was to begin her nursing career and to marry. Ms. Mitchell was 5 feet, 1 inches tall and she weighed around 110 pounds. Her friends recalled that she was a cautious individual, and that she always kept her apartment doors locked. She moved into a townhouse in Dothan where she and her fiancé intended to reside after they married later that summer. On May 14, 1990, Artez Hammonds and another individual delivered newly purchased bedroom furniture to Ms. Mitchell’s townhouse and placed the furniture in the second floor master bedroom. On the evening of May 15, 1990, Ms. Mitchell’s fiancé came to the townhouse and discovered the front door unlocked. He heard water running in the upstairs bathroom and, as he climbed the stairs, he discovered Marilyn Mitchell’s blood-soaked body lying in the hallway at the top of the stairs. He telephoned the police. The police investigation revealed that Marilyn Mitchell was apparently in the downstairs kitchen baking a cake when she was attacked. There were no signs of forcible entry. When Ms. Mitchell’s body was found at the top of the stairs, she was dressed only in a T-shirt, naked from the waist down, and she was lying on her back in a large pool of blood; her legs were spread wide apart. Forensic reports indicated that Ms. Mitchell had been repeatedly stabbed and cut with a knife in the neck and chest. The wounds to the neck perforated her jugular veins and carotid artery and caused massive bleeding. There were over 30 lacerations to the neck area, including a wound that severed the voice box. There was also evidence of ligature strangulation, possibly from Ms. Mitchell’s T-shirt, which had been used to restrain her. In the opinion of the medical examiner, all of these wounds were inflicted while Ms. Mitchell was still alive. There were two extremely violent stab wounds to the chest area, one of which penetrated Ms. Mitchell’s sternum and punctured her aorta. Another vicious stab wound to the chest actually cut through three ribs. The medical examiner opined that the stab wound that punctured the aorta was the wound that finally killed Ms. Mitchell. Swabs taken from Ms. Mitchell’s vaginal and anal cavities indicated the presence of spermatozoa, although there was no evidence of anal penetration. Semen was also found on a paper tissue found in a bedroom next to a bed; the comforter on the bed was missing. Blood splatters were also found in the home. Evidence indicates that the attacker may have cleaned up after the attack, positioned the body, smoked a cigarette, and then flicked ashes on Ms. Mitchell’s body. In addition to the comforter, Ms. Mitchell’s engagement ring and approximately $400 were also apparently taken from the townhouse.
The police investigation continued for many years without success until, in 1996, the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences conducted DNA testing on the semen samples recovered at the crime scene and discovered that the genetic characteristics of the tested samples were more likely to be found among black males than white males. This new information led police investigators back to the furniture delivery men. Police discovered that Artez Hammonds had been convicted for the attempted murder of another woman and that he was serving a 20-year sentence at Holman Prison. Because Hammonds was a convicted felon incarcerated in an Alabama penitentiary, a sample of his blood was drawn, pursuant to the Alabama combined DNA indexing system (“CODIS”) program (see § 36-18-20, Ala.Code 1975, et seq.), and the sample was sent to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences for DNA analysis and comparison. The forensic scientists who conducted the DNA analysis testified that the DNA taken from Hammonds’s blood sample matched the DNA contained in the semen found on the paper tissue, the spermatozoa found on the vaginal and anal swabs, and the bloodstains located on the inside of the door and baseboard of Ms. Mitchell’s home.
Additionally, Hammonds’s thumbprint was found on the telephone in the victim’s bedroom. Testimony also revealed that after the murder Hammonds had in his possession a diamond ring similar in appearance to Ms. Mitchell’s engagement ring; he later pawned the ring.
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/al-court-of-criminal-appeals/1116891.html
