Orlando Mitchell, 36, will be a very old man if he survives his sentence for shooting Krystal Walton, 32, his son’s mother, outside a day care center.
According to records in Marion County, Indiana, he was sentenced Tuesday to 66 years in prison for killing her and violating a no-contact order on September 16, 2022. The 746 days of time served credit—a little more than two years—makes a minor dent in his remaining time.
This does not include his upcoming murder trial for strangling Marion County Sheriff’s Deputy John Durm, 61, during a failed escape attempt on July 10, 2023. This is scheduled for August 2026.
As previously reported, Mitchell waited outside a daycare in Indianapolis while Walton arrived separately. Walton dropped off her children at the facility around 7:30 a.m., and Mitchell ambushed her, killing her.
Police spoke with Mitchell’s grandmother at the scene, who said she hadn’t spoken to her son in over a month because he had threatened to kill Walton and commit a “murder-suicide,” according to NBC affiliate WTHR.
A few hours after the shooting, officers received a tip about Mitchell’s vehicle, which had been spotted at the day care around the time of the shooting.
Mitchell was shot in the leg during a confrontation with police. As he was wheeled into the ambulance, he did not hesitate to admit to killing Walton.
“I shot that b—,” he admitted, according to WTHR. “I shot that b— in the face.”
The fatal shooting came after Mitchell had terrorized the victim for years.
“If he couldn’t see his son, she wasn’t going to be in his life,” his mother told officers, relaying one of his threats, according to an affidavit obtained by Indianapolis Fox affiliate WXIN.
Mitchell was charged in 2021 with choking and threatening to kill Walton, who was then pregnant. He avoided jail time by pleading guilty in July 2022, but violated the protective order in August 2022 by breaking into Walton’s mother’s home and telling the victim, “If you call the police, it’ll be the last thing you do.”
The following day, he texted her, “I promise on my life I won’t stop until you lose everything.”
In 2023, as Mitchell faced charges for Walton’s death, he strangled Deputy Durm, a 38-year veteran, and stole his sheriff’s van. Authorities said he crashed it. He was returned to custody, and according to authorities, he had committed another murder.
