Jury acquits St. Ignatius man on assault charge

In a two-day trial, a Lake County District Court jury of seven women and five men found Donald Isadore Mitchell of St. Ignatius not guilty of burglary and aggravated assault charges in an incident alleged to have occurred in the Arlee home of Sashay Camel.

Mitchell and Camel lived separately after ending a 16-year relationship, and Mitchell filed for emergency custody and primary custody of the children June 25, 2019.

Matthew Glenn Susep Morigeau was transported to the emergency room at St. Patrick’s hospital in Missoula by a relative, with severe facial injuries, late at night June 25. The attending physician referred to ER records to testify that Morigeau suffered a broken cheekbone and eye socket, broken nose, broken jaw, two missing teeth and related afflictions.

Morigeau testified that he was hit while sleeping in Camel’s home in Arlee. He said he woke with extreme pain and a bright flash in his head, and “locked eyes” with Mitchell, whom he had known since youth, as Mitchell left the room seconds after the incident. In a police interview, he said the assailant had shoulder-length hair.

Camel testified that she was woken by Morigeau screaming, “He hit me!” She said she saw Mitchell as he left the room and saw his pickup truck leave from the house. She said a softball bat was missing from her house and thought that may have been used as the assault weapon. Police reported she told them Mitchell wore a gray shirt and jeans. Dogs in the house had not barked, though they were known to bark at the first sound of a vehicle entering the gravel driveway.

A minor child of the couple testified to have accompanied Mitchell to Camel’s home that night and Mitchell had brought out a bat, placed it in the back of the pickup, and claimed he had just hit Morigeau. The bat was not found.

Investigating tribal police officers’ body camera footage showed the interior of Camel’s home. Blood was not conclusively noted at the site, though two small spots on the carpet were mentioned as possible blood. Under questioning, Camel and Morigeau said Morigeau had bled in a bathroom sink, which was not shown on video camera.

The officers testified they found Mitchell at a friend’s home he was staying in with his children. After waking the homeowner and asking if he was there, she woke Mitchell. He was wearing a red shirt and shorts, and had short hair, according to testimony. One officer said the front end of the truck Mitchell was reported to have driven from the site was warmer than the rear end, perhaps indicating the engine could still be warm from having been run sometime earlier.

Mitchell testified that he had been injured by Camel several previous times, and had not ever responded with violence, usually removing himself from the altercation. Among other injuries he described, he said he had once been hit in bed with a boot and had lost two teeth. He said he had stayed because his children were important to him and said Camel had threatened that if he tried to take the kids away from her, she would claim he was violent, and he would go to jail and lose them. Since his arrest, and after serving one week in jail, a restraining order kept Mitchell from seeing the children before the trial.

Mitchell said he had been living off the premises and had removed the children from Camel’s home, six days prior to the incident, after one of them called him and said the mother hadn’t been coming home. He said he had unsuccessfully solicited Camel’s mother’s assistance to get Camel into addiction treatment. He testified that he had been fishing with the children the day of the incident, then had stopped by Camel’s house to feed the dogs and had taken them to the Wye for food. He said he had fallen asleep on the couch in the friend’s house as the kids watched TV, until awoken by police.

Family and friends testified that he was not an aggressive person, but they had witnessed untruthfulness and aggression from Camel toward Mitchell multiple times, and that he had been close to his children. Mitchell worked full time and was usually the sole income provider of the household.

In his closing statement, defense attorney Bob Long said this was a “who dunnit,” but that there was no evidence to show Mitchell had inflicted Morigeau’s injuries, nor that the injury occurred in Camel’s house.

After the verdict was announced, Mitchell said he would be filing to have the restraining order removed.

“I can’t wait to see my kids,” he said through tears.