Protesters outraged accused killer free on bond

Bob Schultz and Brian Hester, both carpenters, took off time from work to join the Thursday morning protest outside the McMinn County Courthouse. Both said that as parents they were concerned about having an accused murderer freed from jail.

Mitchell Delashmitt, 33, was released Monday after a judge threw out his confession and reduced his $100,000 bond to $15,000 on the eve of a scheduled trial. He is charged with felony murder, rape, child molestation and abuse of a corpse in the death of his daughter, Angel Delashmitt.

Criminal Court Judge Carroll Ross, whose order said investigators wrongly ignored Delashmitt’s request for an attorney before he confessed, declined comment Thursday.

The reduced bond allowed Delashmitt to leave the jail where he had been in custody since 2003.

“He shouldn’t be out walking around,” Schultz told The Daily Post-Athenian. “The child isn’t out walking around.”

Assistant District Attorney Jim Stutts said the judge’s order was being appealed, a process that defense attorney John Eldridge predicted would likely delay any trial for a year.

The child’s body was found in April 2003 in a pond near the family home. Delashmitt was baby-sitting while the girl’s mother, Rebecca Dunn, was working. Delashmitt first told investigators the child had wandered away from home. An autopsy showed the death was a homicide.

About a dozen protesters, including the child’s mother and other relatives, waved signs with messages calling for tougher penalties in cases involving crimes against children.

Annette Beloat, the girl’s grandmother, said she understood the judge’s decision to suppress statements made by Delashmitt because of mistakes by investigators, but not the reduced bond.

“You get a higher bond for robbing a convenience store,” Beloat said.

“A baby should never be a victim,” and “Birthday: First & Only” were among messages on the signs, some that showed pictures of Angel holding a Winnie the Pooh doll she received on her first birthday and Angel seated on a tractor.

Another picture showed the baby’s tombstone. The message: “A picture is worth 1,000 words.”

Angel’s mother, Rebecca Dunn, held a sign that said, “I’ll never hold my Angel again.”

“We want to raise awareness that she is one of many children who this has been done to, and the accused is out” of jail, Dunn said.

Passersby honked car horns, gave thumbs up and shouted encouragement.

Tammy Packett stopped to join the demonstration.

“It’s like putting a Band-Aid on cancer if we don’t do anything about it,” she said.