A Miami-Dade man who brutally beat his new roommate after meeting her through Craigslist was sentenced to life in prison Monday.
Byron Mitchell, 39, was found guilty by a jury in June of attempted murder and false imprisonment in the February 2016 incident that left Danielle Jones in a coma for several weeks.
Jones, who was 23 at the time, found Mitchell through a Craigslist ad for a roommate and he moved into her Miami apartment. But two weeks later on Valentine's Day, Mitchell allegedly choked Jones and then beat her head into the floor.
Mitchell had claimed Jones came at him with a knife and he was defending himself. At Mitchell's trial, an emotional Jones testified that Mitchell was the first person to respond to the ad, she needed a roommate quickly, and he seemed like a nice guy.
"Rent is almost due, I'm gonna lose my home, gonna get evicted, that'll ruin my life, and he seemed like a nice person," she said.
Jones' mother said her daughter still deals with PTSD and trauma from brain injuries.
