The Philly man who killed trans activist Mar’Quis Jackson showed ‘exceptional callousness,’ judge says in sentencing him to prison

Tara Jackson wanted to face the man who left her son, Mar’Quis “MJ” Jackson, out to die in the cold on a winter day in 2022.

As she looked at Charles Mitchell, 42, the man found guilty in January of involuntary manslaughter, abuse of corpse, and tampering with evidence in connection with her son’s death, Tara Jackson said the sentence didn’t matter. She had lost her firstborn, she said, his fate sealed by Mitchell’s actions that December night.

“What you took from me was my first love,” she said. “You stole that from me.”

After a hearing during which Jackson’s mother and sister, Markiya Jackson, recalled the 33-year-old son and brother they lost, Common Pleas Court Judge J. Scott O’Keefe ruled that Mitchell would face 2½ to 5 years in prison for Jackson’s death, followed by two years of probation.

In December 2022, Jackson was found dead in the backyard of Mitchell’s North Philadelphia home. He was shoeless and wearing only a T-shirt and gym shorts, and had bruising around his face and head, authorities said.

Prosecutors had initially pursued a third-degree murder charge.

O’Keefe said Mitchell had shown “exceptional callousness” when he left Jackson out in the cold without seeking medical attention.

“To completely disregard another human being is absolutely abhorrent,” he said.

The two men met at a bodega before going to a party at Jackson’s girlfriend’s house to celebrate Jackson’s birthday, according to court testimony. At the party, the two men did drugs together, including crack cocaine and PCP, authorities said.

Later that night, prosecutors said, they left the party and went to Mitchell’s home, where they continued to do drugs and then got into a fight that ended with Mitchell beating Jackson to death.

Mitchell moved Jackson’s body, prosecutors said, and police found Jackson’s bloodstained sneakers and jeans a few feet away in the yard, alongside Jackson’s wallet.

An autopsy later found that Jackson died of blunt force injuries and that he had cocaine and PCP in his system.

At trial, Mitchell’s lawyer, Marni Jo Snyder, questioned the medical examiner’s findings and brought to the stand a forensic pathologist who said Jackson’s death was likely caused by bleeding between his skull and brain that could have happened days before he died.

The medical examiner’s office had not looked at slides of Jackson’s brain or taken into account Jackson’s history of seizures or the drugs in his system, Snyder said.

At Friday’s sentencing, Snyder once again criticized the investigation into Jackson’s death, saying that lapses in analyzing scientific evidence led to more than two years of jail for Mitchell and anguish for Jackson’s family.

“In this matter, had the science been done correctly and had the investigation been done correctly from the beginning, the family would not have been told Mar’Quis Jackson was beaten to death,” Snyder said.

As Jackson’s mother and sister both addressed Mitchell directly, telling him about the brother and son they lost, he wept, dabbing his eyes with a tissue.

Later, Mitchell tearfully apologized for not getting Jackson help as he was lying in Mitchell’s backyard. Mitchell said Friday that he was not in his right state of mind that night and has been full of remorse ever since.

“I’m sorry for not making better decisions that night,” he said. “I’m sorry for not calling medical attention when I discovered him.”

As Mitchell apologized, Markiya Jackson broke down in tears as her mother embraced her.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said Friday that although he believed third-degree murder was the appropriate charge for Mitchell’s crime, he respected the judge’s decision to downgrade the charge. He also noted that the prison term O’Keefe gave Mitchell was above the sentencing guidelines.

“We pursued a higher charge because we believed it was appropriate,” Krasner said. “It’s a case where there was a significant dispute between two different experts who are medical experts.” He acknowledged “a level of uncertainty” about what happened in Mitchell’s backyard the night of Jackson’s death and said that prosecutors recognized that the judge faced ”issues of proof beyond the reasonable doubt.”

Outside the courthouse after the sentencing, Markiya Jackson said she did not fully accept Mitchell’s apology and had hoped that he would serve decades in prison. Still, she said, she was working to forgive him. She and her mother said they were hopeful that the conclusion of the case would allow them to begin to heal.

As she stood next to her youngest child, Tara Jackson remembered her oldest, and tears welled up in her eyes. The length of Mitchell’s prison term, she said, was of little importance. But it offered some semblance of closure, she said, a chance to move forward.

“I’m OK with it. I wish he had more time, because the time that I lost is the time that he should be feeling,” she said.

And yet, she said, “I forgive him. I’ve forgiven him a long time ago.”