Jury returns guilty verdict in 1993 Spanaway murder

The 1993 murder of Spanaway resident Linda Robinson is no longer unsolved.

Wednesday, jurors in Pierce County Superior Court found James Edward Mitchell, 52, guilty of first-degree murder in the once-cold case, resurrected in 2013 by a detective’s reassessment and improved DNA technology. Mitchell’s sentencing is set for March 25.

“I’m glad the jury came back with the verdict they did,” said deputy prosecutor Steve Penner, who handled the case.

Robinson, 36, was stabbed to death while babysitting her young niece and nephew on Feb. 6, 1993. Mitchell lived across the street at the time, court records show. Investigators don’t believe Robinson knew her attacker, and, even after Wednesday’s verdict, the motive for the killing remained unclear.

On the day of the slaying, Robinson put the children to sleep in the living room and went to make soup. Her niece awoke to the whine of a smoke detector that went off when the soup began burning on the stove.

The little girl found Robinson dead in the kitchen and ran to a neighbor for help. Robinson suffered multiple stab wounds to the back and several cuts to her neck and chest. A telephone was close to Robinson but the cord had been cut.

Progress in the case stalled until May 2013, when Robinson’s father and niece called Pierce County detective Sgt. Tim Kobel to ask about progress.

Kobel re-examined the evidence and resubmitted some DNA samples for retesting as methods for examining DNA evidence had improved over the intervening two decades.

The results matched Mitchell, who had other convictions for crimes in Washington and other states. He was arrested in Florida in 2014 and charged with Robinson’s murder.

“The science had to catch up to the evidence,” Penner said. “We were able to get a full DNA profile.”

Following the verdict, Robinson’s relatives praised Kobel’s investigative efforts and said they were pleased with the verdict, though they still don’t know why Mitchell killed their sister.

“We didn’t get the why,” brother Christopher Robinson said. “But we got this today.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2016 at 5:16 PM with the headline "Jury returns guilty verdict in 1993 Spanaway murder."