Denise Valdez and David Charnes dissect Keija Mitchell's sentencing to 14 years for killing Thomas Martin over COVID capacity rules, criticizing the lenient voluntary manslaughter plea deal secured via an Alford plea. They condemn the defense's claim that Martin was on meth as a racist trope mirroring police brutality cases and highlight Judge Tiara Jones's all-Black courtroom dynamic as evidence of preferential treatment. Ultimately, the hosts argue this outcome exposes systemic racial bias in the justice system, where Black defendants receive significantly lighter sentences than white counterparts for identical violence. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Gun, Power, and Preferential Treatment00:08:40
A judge sent a security guard who shot and killed a man to prison.
Thanks for joining us at five.
I'm Denise Valdez.
I'm David Charnes.
This is a story the ADUSAW investigators have followed right from the beginning, first obtaining video, which then became part of the case file.
Our Vanessa Murphy in court during today's tense moments.
And we do want to warn you, the video in this report is of a sensitive nature.
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Yeah, this is what happens when you give a Democrat power and a gun.
Well, that's a hasty generalization.
This is what happens when you give a gun to a Democrat and she's sub-Saharan.
This is what happens if you give a gun to a sub-Saharan progressive black female.
Judge Tiara Jones sentencing Kayja Mitchell to five and a half to 14 years in prison.
What the hell is that woman's name?
Keija Mitchell.
Here, listen, I come back.
Judge Tiara Jones sentencing Keja Mitchell to five and a half to 14 years in prison for shooting and killing a man while she was working as a security guard.
Only five years.
Watch what she does.
Judge Jones acknowledging this is a difficult case, which dates back to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But she points to video and the need to protect the public.
It's not what took place in the store that's the biggest issue.
It's what took place outside of the store that's the biggest issue.
This video shows the moments leading up to Keja Mitchell shooting and killing Thomas Martin outside a 7-Eleven in August of 2020.
Tensions escalate at this Northeast neighborhood convenience store in less than two minutes.
Mitchell limiting customers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Y'all remember that stupid nonsense?
What was the rationale behind that?
You limit the amount of people in your store, but you still take in the same amount of people over time.
Has no effect on preventing you from catching COVID.
Yeah, it did, Kevin.
It kept people from getting COVID.
It worked.
Martin, frustrated, barges in.
Mitchell pulls out a gun.
She and another employee.
Look here.
Let me tell you something.
We used to, my first job out of the military was the security guard.
They told us, we got a gun for me.
They said, the only time you pull out your gun is when your life is at risk.
She's pulling a hollow gun to make him leave the store.
Your life is not at risk.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That is, and you got it in their face.
That is nuts.
Yeah.
That's a criminal charge in itself.
Well, at least her finger straight, it's not on the trigger.
She's got good gun safety.
Hey, but you remember in class?
I think that dude was a little bit racist because he went to me and you said, so, hey, somebody comes up to you and step on your shoes.
What do you do?
I step back and I tell him, don't step on my shoes.
He said, that's a good answer.
I've had white guy that we had to go to that class to get that gun from him.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All right.
No, what this woman is doing is nuts.
I know.
Especially coming five years and the judge is black.
Well, that's not a coincidence.
We remove Martin.
She continues to point the gun at him.
He slaps it away.
The confrontation continues.
Mitchell shoots Martin in the chest in front of his longtime partner.
He got in.
And then you can hate.
What our politicians, our leaders did to us and empowered crazy people like that.
Prosecutors and Mitchell's defense team give two different versions of what happened.
I always ask myself, why was there even an arrest?
Her attorneys point to Martin's toxicology results showing he had methamphetamine in his system.
You would think that what's outside the store, he was faint.
Maybe.
That is crazy.
They try to blame him because he's a drug addict.
I could see if he was being like putting her life at risk.
You know what I mean?
You know, had a weapon.
He was punching her.
Okay, I could totally see her pulling her gun out.
But she pulled it out because physically she cannot do that job.
Yeah.
And she felt disrespected.
But this is the same defense as those police officers had on that against, what was his name?
They beat him, like Briden King.
They said he was high on PCP.
Yeah.
And he had the strength of 10 sub-Saharan.
The same defense.
Yeah.
It's stupid.
Just because you're a drug addict doesn't warrant you to shoot your behavior is what determines that.
Now, is he a bit out of line?
There was no reason to pull that gun in the first place.
And there's definitely no reason to pull the trigger.
He's outside of the store now.
You have a way to retreat.
You can shut the door.
Yeah.
Prosecutors say Mitchell shouldn't have pulled out a gun.
And they point to this.
First exposed by the 8 News Now investigators.
Showing Mitchell's interaction with a woman in the store parking lot.
We learn about another video.
An uncharged act from 19 days before.
Out of control.
I don't know who hired her as a security guard, but that 7-Eleven needs to be sued.
It's probably a black-owned business.
I wouldn't.
Where we watch Miss Mitchell treating another customer like an animal.
Mitchell's attorneys ask for probation after she entered an Alford plea where she doesn't admit guilt, but believes there may be enough evidence to convict her.
That took a murder charge off the table in exchange.
That is nonsense.
If she's white and they show that pry incident to a jury and it's a black person that dies, oh, she's getting probably gonna get at least probably get life.
Probably go at least 20 years.
Yeah.
Exchange for two felonies, including voluntary manslaughter.
Took a murder charge off the table in exchange for two felonies, including voluntary manslaughter.
I am truly sorry for the bottom of my guard.
You was not sorry.
Nah.
Nah.
You sorry.
You lost your cool.
You got emotional.
You felt disrespected.
Your life was not at risk.
But now you sorry.
You sorry because you look at all these years in jail.
That's the only reason why you're sorry.
Yeah, and look at the two ethnicities of the people she committed crimes against.
She's more likely a flat out racist.
Hey, that is a great point because if the shoe was on the other foot, if that was a white guy doing that to a black person, hate crime.
Oh, look how racist he is.
The ACLUs out there, you have Black Lives Matter, marching them down the street.
Yep, exactly.
This black lady got preferential treatment.
Martin's partner saying in court she and his friends will be at Mitchell's parole hearings where she wants to hear her tell the truth.
Reporting in downtown Las Vegas, Vanessa Murphy.
That was crazy.
That was out here in Vegas.
Yeah.
That is crazy.
What's the point in putting a gun at the back of his head?
Yeah, and they are.
Why would you offer someone like that a plea deal?
Oh, she's going to be out of that.
We've been over that.
She's going to be out in five years.
Hell, she might be out three years.
That was the bare minimum.
But bare minimum is five to fourteen.
She's gonna get to five and be out in a year and a half.
Yeah, that's like that's what I'm saying.
She's a black woman, the judge is black.
There's no coincidence, they went easy on her.
Well, this is what happens when you empower Democrats when you empower a Democrat with a gun.
Yeah.
And more likely a Democrat judge.
Yeah, I wonder what's the process to get hired as a security guard at 7-Eleven.
I guess a heartbeat.
That's crazy.
I don't understand why they would offer someone like that with that prior incident a plea deal.