After putting their 18-year-old son on a bus to California, a Paulding County couple got rid of any reminder of the boy. Baby shoes, school work and pictures were thrown away, ridding them of any reminder that Mitch Comer existed.
On Thursday, the couple pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 years — 15 of which will be served in prison — for locking away the teenager. Neither Paul nor Sheila Comer offered any explanation for their actions.
By pleading guilty, the Comers avoided a trial and possible sentences of more than 100 years behind bars. As a condition of the plea deal, the Comers also must forfeit all of their assets, which will go into a trust fund for their three children. Half of their money will go to Mitch and the remaining to the couple’s two younger daughters.
“I wanted the kids to have something,” Paulding County District Attorney Dick Donovan said. “They’re not going to have parents.”
The plea deal followed weeks of negotiations between the two sides, but ultimately was the solution to avoid a possible two-week trial, which would have required the couple’s children to testify.
After allegedly locking Mitch Comer in a bathroom and later a bedroom for at least three years and depriving him of food, the Comers put the teen on a bus to California in September and told him not to return, according to investigators. The day after his 18th birthday, Mitch was placed in the back of his stepfather’s van and driven to a bus station, where Paul Comer allegedly provided the teen with a bus ticket, cash and pamphlets from a homeless shelter.
The emaciated teen, who stood 5-feet-1 and weighed just 87 pounds when he was spotted in the bus station by a former security guard, told Los Angeles police of the abuse he allegedly suffered at the hands of his parents.
He was 18, but looked more like a 12-year-old, and L.A. officers immediately gave him something to eat, Dana Norman, assistant DA in Paulding, told the court Thursday.
“It was pitiful,” Norman said. “He ate the crackers like they were the only thing he had left in the world.”
Police in California then contacted the Paulding County Sheriff’s Office, which immediately began an investigation.
The day after Mitch Comer was found in L.A., Paul and Sheila Comer were arrested at their Paulding County rental home on child cruelty charges. The two have remained in jail since their arrests. They were indicted in October and denied bond in November.
Neither Paul nor Sheila Comer has a prior criminal history. But while living in Cherokee County, the family was investigated in 2009 by the Department of Family and Children Services and the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office. The case was closed and no charges were filed. Other jurisdictions could choose to bring charges against the Comers, but Paulding cannot, Donovan said.
Since returning to Georgia, Mitch Comer has flourished and has returned to school, although his exact whereabouts are not being released, Donovan said Thursday. Given the opportunity to attend Thursday’s court proceeding, the teen opted instead to go to school, the DA said.
“He’s doing well, he’s thriving,” Donovan said. “Still in school, still in the area.”
The couple’s two younger girls have remained in protective custody since their parents’ arrests. It is possible they will be cared for by an uncle, according to Renee Rockwell, lawyer for Sheila Comer.
Following the plea deal Thursday, Rockwell said the Comers were trying to discipline an unruly child, but should have reached out for help. She contends it was Mitch Comer who wanted to go to California.
“We have no idea why it happened,” Donovan said. “I don’t know why God makes people that are mean like that. I don’t think he makes people mean, but I don’t know why there are mean people like that. I really don’t.”
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