Mitchell Brothers - Killing of Artie, and Trial

Killing of Artie, and Trial

In 1991, Jim, in response to friends' and associates' demands to "do something" about alcoholic, cocaine-addled Artie, drove to Artie's house one rainy evening in late February with a .22 rifle that he inherited from his father and fatally shot him. O'Farrell dancer Julie Bajo (Artie's lover at the time) immediately called 911, and the police arrested Jim minutes later. Marilyn Chambers spoke at Artie's funeral, and he was then buried in Lodi Memorial Cemetery.

After a highly publicized trial in which Jim was represented by his old friend and lawyer Michael Kennedy (by then a prominent Park Avenue attorney), the jury rejected a murder charge and found him guilty of voluntary manslaughter. Before Jim's sentencing, numerous people spoke on his behalf (presumably appealing for clemency), including former Mayor Frank Jordan, Sheriff Michael Hennessey, and former Police Chief Richard Hongisto. Mitchell was sentenced to six years in prison.

One of the results of Jim's trial is that the California Courts allowed, in a precedent-setting decision, a virtual reality reenactment of the murder to be entered into evidence. It showed the positions of Jim, Artie, the bullet impact points, and the path taken by bullets as they entered Artie's body. This was the first use of a 3D computer animation in a criminal trial. (In his final argument before the jury, Michael Kennedy attempted to mock the virtual-reality reenactment. However, the success of the method led to its use in other trials.)