Indy mom loses two sons to gun violence. She recently got answers in one case
Rodney Mitchell III was found dead in a riverbank with three bullet wounds in his head in December 2019.
The original detective assigned to the case returned for the meeting, Deena Stapp said. He' been promoted and transferred off the case at some point during the six years following her son's death.
As Stapp finished reading the document Marion County prosecutors would use to charge two people with murder, she said the officer gave her a deep hug and began to cry.
When Mitchell, a young Black man, was found shot, Stapp said officers made assumptions about his lifestyle and friends. They were surprised, she said, when they learned what his life really was like through their investigation.
Mitchell competed in a state spelling bee championship when he was 12. If he wasn't playing basketball or baseball with his high school teams, you could find him playing with different church groups, she said.
"He was the only person that I know who would get upset in the summer time because he couldn't go to school," Stapp said.
Mitchell studied at Manchester University, where he got in on scholarship, Stapp said. He was a freshman and didn't know what he wanted to do, his mom said. Maybe something with sports?
He couldn't play football following a shoulder injury, she said, but he became the school's mascot to spend time with the team. Coaching at his old high school was on the table, she said.
Soon after Stapp read the police report, prosecutors charged Jonathan Hayes, 28, and Alexander Russell, 25, for Mitchell's death.
Hayes, who was already in prison on an unrelated charge, was arrested by Indianapolis police on Aug. 13.
Stapp said she hopes Indianapolis police are now able to focus on investigating the death of her youngest son, Elijah Mitchell, who was shot and killed in 2022.
She said she feels like police never really tried solving Elijah's case. Earlier this year, she was told by a victim advocate within the Indianapolis police department no one was assigned to investigate his case.
"He made the most of his time here,' she said about Rodney Mitchell. "I've never met anybody who loved life more than him."
New details emerge about Rodney Mitchell's death
The document Stapp read suggests Rodney Mitchell's death may have been caused by Russell's romantic frustration. He and Mitchell previously dated the same person in high school, according to court records.
In February 2025, Russell pleaded guilty to attempted murder in a separate case where he violated a no-contact order and threatened to shoot the same ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend.
"I seriously hope and pray you don't stand in front of him or get in my way," Russell texted the ex-girlfriend.
Russell was in Shelby County Jail when he was interviewed in October 2024 regarding Mitchell's death.
Hayes was at the scene with other suspects the night Mitchell was killed, he told investigators. Court records suggest Hayes and other suspects brought Mitchell to the river before they all beat him. Hayes said he was near Russell's car when the gunshots occurred, but believed Russell pulled the trigger.
Hayes pleaded guilty to two felony counts of robbery in September 2022 and will be incarcerated until July 2026, according to court records and the Indiana Department of Correction. He was an inmate at Westville Correctional Facility when he was interviewed in August 2024.
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