Murder suspect to be extradited

A former Carson City maintenance man in jail on the Caribbean island of Trinidad is expected to be back in the United States within four weeks to face a charge of murder in the 1982 slaying of a Gardnerville teen.

Carson City District Attorney Noel Waters said he got word Wednesday that David Winfield Mitchell, 60, did not file an appeal of an order of extradition issued Sept. 4 by a Trinidad magistrate.

"His time lapsed on Tuesday, and there is a letter that the attorney general in Trinidad and Tobago authorized his (return) to the United States," said Waters. "Now it's just a matter of coordinating travel."

Mitchell was arrested Aug. 18 at his home in Trinidad by international police with a Carson City warrant. He is charged with the 1982 beating, sexual assault and strangulation of 18-year-old Sheila Josephine Harris in her Carson City apartment.

Mitchell had worked as a janitor in the complex where Harris was found dead.

He was arrested in the 1980s, but was released for lack of evidence, though investigators at the time obtained hair and saliva samples from him.

In the interim, Mitchell was deported to his native country for being in the U.S. illegally.

In 1999, an investigator reviewing the Harris murder submitted Mitchell's DNA samples to be compared against DNA found on Harris' clothing and body. The results came back in 2000 as a match.

In interviews Mitchell gave to authorities in 1982, he denied ever speaking with Harris except to ask if she wanted her name on her door bell. He claimed the only time he'd been in her apartment was to clean it prior to her moving in.

According to the complex's manager, Mitchell had keys to all the apartments. Investigators found no signs of forced entry into Harris' home.

• Contact reporter F.T. Norton at ftnorton@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1213.