'That's not going anywhere': State brushes off appeal in murder/dismemberment case

BUSHNELL — The woman who pleaded no contest to killing and dismembering her boyfriend in his RV and living with his deteriorating remains for months is now appealing her life prison sentence.

Not only was the grisly slaying of 55-year-old Anthony Mitchell by Penny Pospisil in August 2018 “especially brutal and heinous,” prosecutors say, but her appeal to the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach is odd and highly unlikely to succeed.

“That’s not going anywhere,” Chief Assistant State Attorney Walter Forgie said.

Pospisil entered what is known as an open plea — no negotiated terms between the state and the defense. She did so in the middle of her trial in October 2022.

Pospisil was charged with second-degree murder, abusing a dead body, and grand theft. Though she entered the plea in October, she wasn't sentenced until February.

Prosecutors had no interest in a plea deal, anyway.

“We had already covered much of the case, except for the financial part,” said Assistant State Attorney Daniel Geraghty. That part involved allegations that Pospisil had stolen the victim's credit cards and taken over bank accounts and was spending his Social Security money. The court this month ordered Pospisil to pay back more than $4,000 to the Social Security Administration.

Prosecutors said she strangled Mitchell, who was disabled, with one hand and bludgeoned him with the other before stabbing him. Pospisil then dismembered him, including cutting off his genitals and disposing of his heart, which was never found.

The evidence showed Pospisil used garden shears, a large fillet knife, a “heavy-duty” electric carving knife, a heavy hammer, and a flat shovel. There were also several chemicals stored inside intended to break down the body, including bleach, ammonia, and muriatic acid.

Brevard County crime scene investigators had to wear white hazardous material suits to examine the RV, which had been moved there from Lake Pan Village in Sumter County. “They looked like giant marshmallows walking around,” Geraghty said.

What happened during trial was unusual but not unheard of

Open pleas are not unheard of, said John Spivey, the executive assistant public defender. “It’s her choice. Sometimes clients look for door No. 3 instead of going to trial or negotiating a plea.”

It happens sometimes in misdemeanor cases.

Second-degree murder is a first-degree felony that carries a mandatory life sentence if it involves a firearm. But there was no gun in this case.

According to a transcript of the Oct. 12 trial, Circuit Judge Mary Hatcher asked Pospisil if she understood she was giving up her right to a trial, if she was happy with her attorney, if anyone had pressured her, if she was on any drugs or medications, or if she had ever been “hospitalized for mental illness.” Pospisil answered no to all those questions.

The mental illness question was not out of line. After all, why did Pospisil chop up her boyfriend and put parts in the kind of plastic containers you store Christmas decorations in? She could have disposed of them in an alligator-filled lake, Geraghty said. Investigators said she was looking for someone to help her dispose of the body.

Nor was Pospisil insane when she killed Mitchell. “She was just mean,” Geraghty said in a recent interview.

According to the transcript, Hatcher also told Pospisil, “you could be facing a maximum penalty as to count one life in prison, as to count two 15 years in prison, as to count three five years in prison.”

Prosecutors said the absolute minimum would be 22 years. The sentence imposed on the 52-year-old in February was life without the possibility of parole, plus 15 years for count two and five years for grand theft to run consecutively.

The appeal

Among her new pleadings is a notice seeking executive clemency. Pospisil also is asking for a public defender for her appeal.

To prevail on appeal, Pospisil would have to prove that Judge Mary Hatcher or the lawyers committed some grievous error.

“I’ve tried a lot of cases with (Assistant Public Defender) Christopher Shropa, and he’s very good, very thorough,” Geraghty said, adding that the judge didn’t commit any errors, either.

Background of the case

Pospisil didn’t help her case by changing her story.

She said that, in September 2018, she dropped Mitchell off in Vero Beach and didn’t know what happened to him after that. She told others that he had gone to see his mother out of state. It was there that he died of natural causes and was cremated, she said. She even ordered memorial cards, investigators said.

But there was the unmistakable smell of death surrounding the RV when it was searched in December 2018 in Melbourne. Pospisil told people that her septic tank had backed up. She also claimed she had to wear a colostomy bag.

Pospisil had driven the RV from Sumter County to Brevard County and lived for approximately five months in the vehicle, though sometimes she stayed with her son, his girlfriend, and their child.

Pospisil was late on her lot rent at Wickham Park in Melbourne in December 2018 when a park ranger, accompanied by Melbourne police, went to the RV and made the gruesome discovery, the prosecutor said.

She was arrested nearly a month later, on Jan. 25.

Pospisil denied everything, even when shown photographs of the trailer and the remains.

“This is Anthony, or Tony. OK? And the reason we know it’s Tony is that he had surgery on his back and had an instrument in his spine that we were able to identify. OK? That’s Tony right there,” Detective John Knight said, according to a written transcript of law enforcement's interview with Pospisil.

“No it’s not,” she replied.

“Yes it is,” Knight said.

“This didn’t happen in my camper.”

“This didn’t magically happen,” he said.

“So, a man I loved, I would do that to him?”

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Knight said.

Detectives methodically picked apart Pospisil's version of her travel itinerary and her other claims, then asked: “Did he choke you out too much and you hit him, or something happened? Self-defense?”

“No,” she said, according to the transcript.

“Did he die of natural causes in the trailer and you got scared and didn’t know what to do?”

“No.”

“Because you told me already that you dropped him off….”

“In Vero,” she answered.

“So how did we get to this point?”

“Good question,” she said.

The sentencing hearing in February

Eventually, she told another version.

“I’m not a monster. I’m not an evil person, nor am I a cold-blooded killer,” Pospisil said at her sentencing on Feb. 24 of this year, according to a transcript of the proceedings. “However, Tony Mitchell is deceased because of a decision I made out of desperation and fear for my own life which I regret making.”

She claimed that he manipulated her, controlling everything she did until it was “too late and I was in love with him.”

Pospisil said he wanted to “share” her with men and women while he watched, but she refused. He developed a “dark fascination” with bondage, especially asphyxiation.

Pospisil said the night before he died, he held her down while two strangers raped her.

Previous coverage: Body discovered in trailer

The next morning, she tried to leave but he held her down and began strangling her. Pospisil said she had a pair of scissors in her hand.

“I swung the scissors trying to hit his arm, but either he moved or I missed. Either way, it stuck in Tony’s neck. I loved Tony, never wanted to hurt him,” she told the court.

The alleged choking and self-defense are direct contradictions to what she told investigators initially. “Battered spouse syndrome is an affirmative defense,” Spivey said.

She asked for mercy and to be sent to a prison that could treat her for trauma.

Geraghty said there was no evidence to support Pospisil's claims. For one thing, he was weak and disabled from a stroke he suffered in 2016.

Previous coverage: Woman sentenced to life for killing, dismembering man found at Wickham Park campground

In a victim impact statement, Mitchell's daughter, Meagan, said: “I wanted the court to know that since I was a little girl, my dad made me make a promise to him that I would never let his body rot and I would make sure he was cremated. It may seem silly but he always told me he was afraid of afraid of his body rotting.

“We had so many conversations about this, I always promised him that I would never allow that to happen. But due to your actions, Penny, I’m unable to keep a promise a little girl made to her dad. That truly breaks my heart because I always believed I would be able to keep that promise.”

This article originally appeared on Ocala Star-Banner: Appeal filed in 2018 murder/dismemberment case