A San Diego judge ordered former Marine Raymond “RJ” McLeod to stand trial for murder in the 2016 strangulation death of his girlfriend, Krystal Mitchell.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Kimberlee Lagotta issued her ruling after a three-day preliminary hearing that featured notable figures Dr. David Drew Pinsky and Dr. Michael Baden testifying as experts in support of McLeod’s claim that Mitchell’s death was an accident. McLeod does not dispute that he caused Mitchell’s death. His lawyers claim McLeod unintentionally strangled Mitchell to death during rough consensual sex that included erotic asphyxiation, or what’s referred to as sexual choking.
Raymond McLeod appears in court Oct. 23, 2024. (Court TV)
San Diego prosecutors claim McLeod’s treatment of Mitchell and his violent sexual conduct toward others bear a predatory, malicious intent that culminated in Mitchell’s death. Prosecutors also point to McLeod’s decision to flee the country within hours of Mitchell’s death with $10,000 in cash as evidence of his guilty conscience. He remained fugitive for six years until he was arrested in El Salvador in 2022.
McLeod’s friend, Justin Seydell, testified McLeod was gone when Seydell found Mitchell’s body in his guest room the afternoon June 10, 2016. Mitchell and McLeod had arrived in California from Arizona the day before for a weekend visit. The couple ate and drank with Seydell and his girlfriend before going to a bar where witnesses testified they saw McLeod grab Mitchell by the throat and get into a fight with another patron who tried to intervene.
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Prosecutors played surveillance video at the hearing which showed the couple returning to the apartment in the early morning. Mitchell and McLeod entered the parking deck at separate times, with Mitchell sinking to the floor at one point and sitting against a concrete wall, draping her sweater over her legs, as if deciding what to do next. She eventually stood up and met McLeod in the elevator, where the video shows McLeod grabbing Mitchell’s throat as the elevator door closes.
Throughout the hearing, attorneys on both tried to use evidence of McLeod’s extreme bondage practices to support their theory concerning whether Mitchell’s death was a mistake or murder.
One of those women told San Diego Police Lt. Louis Maggi about four consensual sexual encounters she had with McLeod, including one the day before McLeod killed Mitchell. In that encounter, the woman said McLeod choked her until she was unconscious. Maggi testified he later found photos on McLeod’s phone of the woman’s naked body that he had shared with others. In one another encounter, the woman said McLeod broke a whip on her backside and left bruises on her collarbone, Maggi testified.
San Diego Police Det. Luke Johnson testified about two women he spoke with, including McLeod’s ex-wife. The women told Johnson about a time when McLeod pushed her against a car in a parking while she was holding their baby, which led her to take out a protective order on him. Under questioning from McLeod’s lawyers, Johnson testified the investigation revealed that another person reported the incident, not McLeod’s ex-wife, and the matter was resolved without her pressing charges.
Another former sexual partner of McLeod’s described McLeod as a “male whore,” Johnson testified. The woman said McLeod taught her about bondage and respected her limits.
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The judge cited the “severity” of Mitchell’s injuries in her decision that there was enough evidence of intentional homicide for McLeod to stand trial on a murder charge.
Judge Lagotta noted a medical examiner’s testimony that Mitchell’s neck was fractured in three separate locations. An autopsy further found cuts and bruises all over her body, including lacerations to her genitals that the medical examiner who performed Mitchell’s autopsy likened to injuries from childbirth. Such injuries did not contribute to her death, which was caused by asphyxiation, San Diego County Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Bethann Schaber testified.
McLeod is scheduled to return to court on November 20 for an arraignment.
