When Austin Police responded to a 911 call about an assault on the Congress Avenue bridge last October, they had seen the perpetrator before.
Timothy Lewis Mitchell, who struck a female passerby and beat bloody a man who came to her aid, had been in and out of jail in Travis County not just once or twice, but dozens of times.
Mitchell’s criminal history, which includes 38 convictions, highlights the inadequacies of a system that repeatedly has held him accountable for minor offenses while failing to address his long history of drug use, mental illness, homelessness, and occasionally violent conduct.
According to a review of police and court records, Mitchell has faced repeated charges of criminal trespassing but in recent years he dodged prosecutions or walked away with light sentences for more serious drug offenses, thefts, and assaults.
Authorities have never succeeded in getting him into a community supervision drug treatment program or other rehabilitative program.
After the assault on the Congress Avenue bridge, county prosecutors sought a 200-day sentence as part of a plea deal, rather than the year-long maximum. Mitchell was out within three months, granted early release under a manual labor program run by the County Sheriff.
When Mitchell was arrested for trespassing at an apartment complex in June 2016, the police officer who filed the arrest affidavit said that Mitchell had a “brown paper bag that Mitchell admitted was his. Inside the bag was a clear glass smoking pipe with white residue inside.”
However, prosecutors never pursued a drug charge. They struck a plea bargain with the defendant whereby he plead no contest to a trespassing charge and spent 10 days in jail.
During another arrest for trespassing in January 2018, this time at a Whataburger, an Austin Police officer searched Mitchell and found in his jacket “a cylindrical glass pipe with burnt white residue.” The officer noted in the arrest affidavit that “the burned residue in the pipe seized as evidence had characteristics consistent with that of crack cocaine.”
In recent years Travis County prosecutors have stopped pursuing “trace cases” involving drug residue on pipes or other paraphernalia. The arrest at the Whataburger resulted only in a conviction for criminal trespassing and a 10-day jail sentence.
Violent History
Prior to assaulting passersby on the Congress Avenue bridge, Mitchell already had a history of erratic and violent behavior. In 2008 he assaulted a girlfriend, resulting in conviction on a family violence charge and a sentence of 120 days.
In June 2014, police arrested him on an assault charge after he hit a man on E. 6th Street. The victim told the police that “he was walking down the street when… the suspect without provocation or reason punched (the victim) once on the right side of his jaw,” the affidavit says.
During that case, a county judge appointed an expert to examine Mitchell’s mental competency, but the case ended with a plea agreement for 50 days in jail.
In October 2017, Mitchell was arrested for trespassing at a Starbucks on Oltorf Street. The affidavit says he was “yelling profanity at random cars driving by.”
Mental Competency
Court-appointed defense attorneys several times have sought to apply an insanity defense or have asked the court to examine their client for mental competency to stand trial.
After an indecent exposure arrest in March 2018, a judge ruled Mitchell mentally incompetent to stand trial. He was committed to the Austin State Hospital for 60 days, after which the case was dismissed in June 2018.
In September 2015, Mitchell was arrested leaving an Austin Community College campus with student ID cards, credit cards, and debit cards that were not his own. A judge deemed him mentally incompetent to stand trial, delaying a trial until Feb. 2016.
Other Charges
Mitchell’s drug use goes back well over a decade. A 2003 affidavit described Mitchell as possessing and dealing prescription drugs. Charges in that case resulted in a 90-day sentence.
In 2006 Mitchell was charged with evading arrest. The affidavit describes him leaving an apparent drug deal on Neches Street and swallowing crack rocks as he fled.
After an arrest in December 2016 for stealing an iPad from the valet of a downtown hotel, Mitchell got a 20-day sentence. In March 2017, he was arrested for criminal trespass after alleged indecent conduct at the Terrazas Public Library
In mid-2019, he served six months in jail for committing a burglary. When he got out, he soon faced police warrants for public intoxication, littering, and drug paraphernalia.
Mark Dolan, one of Mitchell’s victims on the Congress Avenue bridge, said he was very disappointed when he learned of Mitchell’s early release. “I had an ear injury. Contusion in my head. Stitches in my mouth, my lip, my forehead,” he said.
“The whole process needs to be looked at I think,” Dolan told KXAN News, saying he wants to talk to legislators about programs that reduce violent offenders’ time in jail. “Just talk to them from the victim’s perspective.”
But Mitchell soon ended up back in jail anyway. In the latest case in this saga, he was arrested on February 12 for criminal trespass. He plead guilty in Travis County Court at Law No. 6, and was sentenced to 20 days in jail.
