Prosecutors said Damian Mitchell bought a paring knife at a Safeway moments before he followed and fatally stabbed 29-year-old Reminisce Biddle.
PHOENIX, Ariz. — A Maricopa County judge sentenced Damian Mitchell to 25 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the December 2024 stabbing death of Reminisce Biddle, a 29-year-old man who made it to a nearby grocery store before collapsing.
The sentence closes a case that drew attention for its sudden violence and the trail of evidence left behind. Prosecutors said Mitchell, 48, bought a 3.5-inch paring knife inside a Safeway, crossed paths with Biddle outside, traded words with him, then turned around and followed him behind a building. Investigators said store video, a debit card purchase and witness accounts helped police identify Mitchell and build the case that led to his conviction.
The killing happened on Dec. 29, 2024, in central Phoenix. Prosecutors said Biddle and Mitchell passed each other near Osborn Road and exchanged words. What began as a brief encounter quickly turned deadly. According to investigators, Mitchell followed Biddle behind a nearby building and stabbed him once in the chest. Biddle then got back on his bicycle and rode to a grocery store for help. Prosecutors said he walked into the store, told people he had been stabbed and collapsed. Officers and emergency crews responded, and Biddle was taken to a hospital, where he later died from the wound. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said after sentencing that the defendant had turned “a brief encounter into a moment of violence,” framing the case as one in which a small dispute ended in an irreversible loss. The county attorney’s office announced the sentence on Feb. 11, 2026, after the jury returned its verdict in the second-degree murder case.
Investigators said the case came together through a mix of surveillance footage, transaction records and witness statements. According to court records described by prosecutors, cameras showed Mitchell inside the same Safeway shortly before the stabbing. He was seen buying a paring knife and a can opener, then leaving the store. Officials said the blade matched the victim’s stab wound. The purchase also gave detectives a direct lead because Mitchell used a prepaid debit card, allowing police to trace the transaction and identify him. A witness who saw the first confrontation told police the two men passed each other, exchanged words and then moved out of sight behind a building. The witness later reported hearing what sounded like an altercation and then seeing Biddle clutch his chest as he rode away on his bicycle. The witness also said the suspect left in the opposite direction on a mountain bike. Police arrested Mitchell on Jan. 5, 2025. During questioning, investigators said, he admitted buying the knife and going to the area of the crime scene, though he offered a different account of how the stabbing happened.
That alternate account became one of the notable points in the case. Investigators said Mitchell told them another person borrowed the knife he had just bought, used it to stab Biddle and then returned it to him. He also said he later threw the knife away in a parking lot after noticing blood on it. Prosecutors argued that story did not fit the physical evidence, the timing of the store purchase or the witness account. The jury ultimately agreed with the state’s case and convicted him of second-degree murder, a Class One dangerous felony in Arizona. Officials have not publicly described any prior relationship between Mitchell and Biddle, and the available records portray the encounter as one between strangers. Authorities also have not publicly detailed what was said during the exchange outside the store. That left the exact spark for the violence unclear even as the broader timeline became more settled through video and witness evidence. In cases like this, that gap can remain even after a conviction, with the legal process answering who acted and what happened more clearly than why a passing encounter turned fatal.
The location details helped investigators define the attack and Biddle’s final movements. Prosecutors said officers were first alerted after Biddle reached the grocery store and collapsed. With help from a witness, police traced the original scene to an area a few blocks away near 7th Avenue and Osborn Road. Other reports tied the broader response to the area around 5th Avenue and Osborn Road, reflecting the short distance between where the stabbing took place and where Biddle sought help. That movement became a central part of the story prosecutors presented: a man stabbed behind a building, still able to ride for help, then collapsing inside a store before dying at the hospital. The facts also gave the case an unusual and grim sequence, with the weapon allegedly bought moments before the killing and the victim making one last effort to survive. Prosecutor Bernita Clark handled the case for the county attorney’s office. After the verdict and sentence, Rachel Mitchell said Clark had helped secure justice for Biddle and his family and had ensured that the killer was held accountable.
The case moved through the system for more than a year between the arrest and the sentence. Police arrested Mitchell on Jan. 5, 2025, less than a week after the stabbing. Prosecutors later charged him with second-degree murder, and the matter proceeded to trial in Maricopa County Superior Court. By February 2026, a jury had found him guilty. The court then imposed a 25-year prison term, one of the most serious penalties available short of a life sentence for that kind of conviction. Officials described the sentence as a measure of accountability for a killing they said grew out of a momentary street encounter. The conviction resolved the criminal case at the trial level, though defendants in Arizona can seek post-trial relief or appeal after sentencing. No public filing described in the reports available with the sentencing announcement laid out the next step for the defense. For Biddle’s relatives, the hearing marked the formal end of the prosecution, even if it did not answer every question about motive or erase the abruptness of his death.
There was little public drama in the official summary of the case, but the details remained stark. A man entered a grocery store, bought ordinary kitchen tools and left. Minutes later, prosecutors said, one of those items became the weapon in a homicide. Another man, wounded in the chest, still managed to ride to a store and ask for help before collapsing. The witness account added a final image that stayed with the case: Biddle riding west while holding his chest, and the suspect riding east on a mountain bike. That contrast helped shape the prosecution narrative of pursuit and sudden violence. Officials have spoken publicly in careful terms, keeping their comments focused on the loss to Biddle’s family and the evidence that led to the conviction. Rachel Mitchell said the killing left Biddle’s loved ones with “irreparable loss,” a phrase that underscored how the case has been presented by prosecutors not only as a solved homicide but also as a random act that ended one life and changed many others.
Mitchell now faces a 25-year prison term after his second-degree murder conviction, and the case stands closed at the sentencing stage unless new court action follows. As of March 15, 2026, the next public milestone would likely come only if an appeal or other post-conviction filing is made in Arizona courts.
Author note: Last updated March 15, 2026.