Everett Maurice Mitchell Jr., a 32-year-old Black male from Beaumont, Texas, was shot and killed during the early morning hours of August 13, 2017. Beaumont police were dispatched at approximately 7:29 a.m. to a residence in the 5000 block of Brace Drive after receiving a report of a shooting. Officers found Mitchell lying in the driveway with a gunshot wound to the chest. Beaumont EMS responded, but Mitchell was pronounced dead at the scene.
The killing became Beaumont’s 14th homicide of 2017.
Investigators quickly focused on Deremick Jamaal Hunter, a longtime friend of Mitchell. Witnesses at the scene identified Hunter as the person believed to have shot Mitchell. Authorities said Hunter left immediately afterward in a 1999 gold Oldsmobile Delta 88. Only minutes after police were dispatched to the shooting, the vehicle was seen traveling eastbound in the 8700 block of Lawrence Drive at a high rate of speed. The driver lost control, went into a ditch and struck a parked Ford F-250. Hunter then reportedly abandoned the vehicle and fled on foot.
Several hours later, one of Hunter’s relatives brought him to the Beaumont Police Department so he could speak with investigators. Police questioned him and subsequently arrested him in connection with Mitchell’s death. Hunter, who was 33 at the time, was initially charged with murder and taken to the Jefferson County Correctional Facility. His bond was set at $750,000.
Investigative records provided additional details about what happened after the shooting. According to a probable-cause affidavit, multiple witnesses identified Hunter as the shooter. Mitchell’s mother and sister also told investigators that Hunter contacted them after the shooting and acknowledged what had happened. Mitchell had been shot in the chest outside his mother’s home. Authorities said Hunter also admitted during a police interview that he had shot Mitchell, although the circumstances surrounding the discharge of the gun later became a central issue in the criminal case.
A Jefferson County grand jury indicted Hunter in November 2017 on a first-degree murder charge. As the case moved through the court system, however, the eventual prosecution centered on manslaughter rather than an intentional murder conviction. By 2019, Mitchell’s family was still waiting for the criminal case to be resolved. At a celebration of Mitchell’s life near the second anniversary of his death, relatives said Hunter had been released on bond while the case remained pending. Mitchell’s family and friends remembered him as someone who was generous, candid and deeply involved in the lives of those close to him. He left behind a young daughter, Serenity.
Hunter eventually went to trial in Jefferson County in October 2021. The prosecution argued that Hunter was responsible for firing the shot that killed Mitchell. During opening statements, prosecutors said jurors would hear about the telephone call Hunter made to Mitchell’s mother after the shooting as well as statements he allegedly made to police. Investigators also testified about conflicting accounts concerning who had fired the weapon.
Hunter took the witness stand in his own defense. He told jurors that he and Mitchell had known each other for more than 20 years, having grown up together, played sports together and later worked together. Hunter maintained that Mitchell’s death was accidental. According to his testimony, the gun discharged while Mitchell was handing the weapon to him. Prosecutors challenged that account with evidence concerning the nature of Mitchell’s wound, including testimony or questioning indicating that the fatal gunshot was fired with the weapon pressed against Mitchell’s chest. When asked whether he continued to maintain that the weapon had accidentally fired while being passed to him despite that evidence, Hunter stood by his version of events.
The defense also presented testimony intended to support the possibility that Mitchell had previously handled firearms in an unsafe or accidental manner. One of Hunter’s friends described an unrelated incident at a casino in which Mitchell allegedly caused a gun to discharge accidentally into the ceiling. The defense used that episode to reinforce Hunter’s claim that the fatal shooting was not intentional.
After hearing the evidence, the jury did not convict Hunter of murder. On October 29, 2021, he was found guilty of manslaughter for his role in Mitchell’s death. Hunter received a 10-year prison sentence that was probated, meaning he would remain on probation for 10 years rather than immediately serving the entire sentence in prison. The court ordered him to serve 180 days in custody at the beginning of the sentence, with credit for approximately 30 days he had already spent behind bars. If he violated the terms of his probation, he could be required to serve the underlying prison sentence. A post-sentencing hearing was also ordered to establish or address conditions of his supervision.
The case therefore ended with a criminal conviction against the only publicly identified suspect. Hunter went from being arrested on a murder charge shortly after Mitchell’s killing, to being indicted for murder, and ultimately being convicted of the lesser offense of manslaughter more than four years after the shooting.
