Shopping
Codefendant describes ‘car shopping’ and beating that led to death of man in Stevens Point on Day 3 of trial
Arlin Sangster is charged with being a party to the crime of first-degree reckless homicide for the beating death of Donald Mitchell Jr., 61, on March 15 in Stevens Point.
STEVENS POINT − A codefendant of a 20-year-old Rothschild man on trial for the death of a 61-year-old man was called to the stand Wednesday by the prosecution.
Wednesday was the third day in what is expected to be a five-day trial for Arlin O. Sangster, who is charged with being a party to the crime of first-degree reckless homicide in the March 15 beating death of Donald G. Mitchell Jr. in a downtown Stevens Point parking lot. Sangster previously pleaded not guilty to the charge and to a misdemeanor charge of theft.
Portage County District Attorney Cass Cousins called one of Sangster’s two codefendants, Brandon L. Boehm, 20, of Wausau, to take the stand Wednesday. Boehm is scheduled for an arraignment Sept. 3 on the charge of being a party to the crime of first-degree reckless homicide.
Boehm told jurors he was a preschool teacher, worked in day care and was a kids’ counselor for the YMCA prior to his being arrested earlier this year. He said he enjoyed the work.
Boehm said he spent most of March 15 at his apartment. At about 8 p.m. or 9 p.m., he had a friend drive him to another friend’s home where several people were hanging out. At some point, about seven members of the group, including Sangster, Daemon Kitzrow and Christian J. Emerson, 19, of Wausau, decided to go to Icon, a club in Stevens Point.
Emerson is the third codefendant in the case. He pleaded not guilty April 4 to being a party to the crime of first-degree reckless homicide.
Boehm said he didn’t really want to go to Stevens Point and planned to have the group drop him off at a tavern instead. However, he went with Kitzrow and Sangster in Emerson’s car.
Boehm said three of the men who went in a separate vehicle were all over 21 and went straight to Icon, but Emerson, Sangster, Kitzrow and him went to Polito’s for a pizza first. The group then went to Icon.
Boehm said he planned to borrow an identification card from someone in the club, but that didn’t work out, so he borrowed one from someone he met at the pizza place. The card didn’t work and none of the four underage men got in.
The group wound up back at Emerson’s car in the municipal parking lot behind the Cobblestone Hotel when Emerson remembered he left his keys at Polito’s, Boehm said. Kitzrow volunteered to get the keys and the group began talking about “car shopping,” Boehm said. Car shopping is going into unlocked cars to look for items worth stealing.
Boehm said he and Sangster got out of Emerson’s car, and Sangster went one way and Boehm went another. Boehm saw Mitchell’s pickup with a camper on the back and opened the door. He said he got almost all the way in the truck and found a Milwaukee multi-tool and a cellphone case he took and put in the front pocket of his sweatshirt.
Boehm said he was still in the truck when Mitchell was outside yelling at him and trying to pull him out. Boehm said he got out of the truck and ran from the scene with Mitchell chasing him, yelling things like “What did you take from my truck” and “Give me my stuff back.”
Boehm said he ran back toward Emerson’s car and he slipped and fell on the pavement, scraping both his hands. Boehm said Mitchell was right above him and he could see Mitchell had something in his hand. Boehm said he got back up and he threw a punch at Mitchell, hitting him on the side of the head.
Sangster and Emerson got out of the car and got involved with the fight. Boehm said he backed away, and Sangster threw the first punch. Boehm said Sangster hit Mitchell about 10 times.
Defense Attorney Greg Venturini questioned Boehm about the Milwaukee multi-tool that was in Boehm’s front sweatshirt pocket. The tool was about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide, and was made of metal. It would have added a lot of weight to Boehm’s fist if he held it when he hit Mitchell, Venturini said. Boehm said he never thought about that.
Venturini questioned Boehm about his past, including asking him about 12 incidents of car shopping he had been caught doing in the past. Boehm admitted to the incidents but said he couldn’t remember the details about them.
Detective retakes stand and uses diagrams to clarify videos of beating
Stevens Point Detective Kent Lepak, who took the stand Tuesday, was recalled to the stand on Wednesday. Lepak showed pictures of Sangster, Boehm, Emerson and Kitzrow in Stevens Point the night of the beating. He was able to show jurors how each man was dressed differently that night, making them easy to tell apart from a distance.
Lepak then reshowed video from cameras surrounding the parking lot where the beating took place. This time, he included diagrams of the parking lot and the men’s positions, so they could better understand what they were seeing in the videos.
Lepak also showed two videos that had been posted on social media by Boehm. One of them, taken by Sangster, shows Mitchell lying on his stomach on the pavement. The group is in the car yelling at the unconscious man on the ground as they drive by. The other shows Boehm’s hands with blood on them from the fall he took in the parking lot. The men are yelling and Sangster turns to the backseat with what appears to be a large smile on his face.
Lepak also confirmed testimony given Tuesday by a family member of Mitchell and his friend. Both of them had testified that the lock on Mitchell’s trailer was broken and could only be locked and unlocked from the inside with a pliers. Officers found the pliers lying on the ground while investigating the case.
Cass and Portage County Assistant District Attorney Jedidiah Dodge rested their case at the end of the day Wednesday. The defense is expected to begin Thursday morning.
Contact Karen Madden at 715-345-2245 or kmadden@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @KMadden715, Instagram @kmadden715 or Facebook at www.facebook.com/karen.madden.33.
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