FARMINGTON – After more than 25 years of waiting, Judith Flagg finally has found justice.
After an hour and a half of deliberations, a jury of Franklin County residents returned to the courtroom to find Thomas Mitchell, 52, of South Portland, guilty of the crime of murder. Flagg’s family, including her husband Theodore Flagg and son Chad Flagg, quietly hugged and shook hands at the pronouncement.
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Mitchell, who will face sentencing next month, did not show any visible emotion as he talked with his lawyers while the more than 100 people attending the court proceeding filed out.
On Jan. 6, 1983, Judith Flagg and Theodore Flagg, along with their 13-month-old son, were living in a home on the Watson Hill Road in Fayette, which they had recently purchased after the previous owner, Thomas Mitchell, Sr., had died.
Theodore Flagg returned from work late that evening to find his wife dead, stabbed repeatedly in the chest and back, gripping the kitchen phone. His son was curled up on top of Judith Flagg’s body.
Police initially suspected Mitchell of the crime, after Theodore Flagg told them that he had been by the house on two occasions to ask about some items his father had left behind. Foot impressions, leading to and from a kitchen door which was seldom used by the Flaggs, matched a pair of shoes that Mitchell owned. Police also talked to a pair of witnesses, a police sergeant with the South Portland Department and a mail carrier, who reported seeing Mitchell’s car, a distinctly-marked Thunderbird, leaving Portland and on the Watson Hill Road, respectively.
However, there was never enough evidence to bring the case to trial.
Scientific advancements provided the impetus for the conviction, with new DNA testing procedures allowing technicians and scientists at the state’s crime lab to test evidence taken at the scene. A swab from Judith Flagg’s mouth tested positive for semen, and was compared to Mitchell’s DNA. That test did not exclude Mitchell, and further tests on clippings from Judith Flagg’s nails gave police a match.
Mitchell was already in custody at this point, having been convicted of attempted murder and rape of a young woman in 1985. Police charged Mitchell with murder, a Class A felony, in September 2006. After arguing that pretrial publicity would make getting a fair jury difficult, the court agreed to transfer the case out of Kennebec County.
After the trial, Deputy Attorney General William Stokes praised investigators and the crime lab personnel for sticking with the case as well as Flagg’s family, whom he called “wonderful people” for persevering through such an extended, difficult time.
“All of the evidence pointed to Mr. Mitchell,” said Stokes, who received a round of applause from Flagg’s family members gathered outside the courthouse.
Theodore Flagg, for his part, said his family did not consider the conclusion of the case a matter of “closure,” saying that they were certain Mitchell had been responsible. Instead, Flagg said, they were happy to know that he wouldn’t be hurting anyone else.
“We’ve known for a long time who did it,” Flagg told reporters. “It was just that the evidence to convict wasn’t there.”
“They just couldn’t let him out,” he said, surrounded by his family. “The community is safe again, and that’s what matters. That’s it in a nutshell.”
Flagg praised both his own family, who had been quietly waiting for justice since 1983 and the work of the investigators and district attorney’s office.
“They made this place safer,” he said, “and that’s something every women has got to appreciate.”
The packed courthouse seemed to surprise even Flagg’s immediate family, many of whom had stayed for every moment of the seven-day trial. Flagg said that people he hadn’t seen in years, such as his old Sunday school teacher, were in the audience.
Justice Joseph Jabar thanked the jury for their service and said the court would discuss the scheduling of sentencing with both the state and defense.
