Stabbing victim defended his wife as he was dying

As he lay dying, Sylvester Mitchell defended the woman who allegedly stabbed him and told police someone else attacked him.

"I love my wife," he said to the officers who came to his Dorchester house early Saturday, a prosecutor said yesterday in Dorchester District Court, where Mitchell's wife, Sharon Fitzpatrick, 35, was arraigned on murder charges.

At yesterday's hearing, Assistant District Attorney Kelly Downes said Fitzpatrick stabbed Mitchell in the heart when he came home about 4 a.m. Saturday, after he celebrated his 40th birthday with friends.

Downes portrayed Fitzpatrick, a 911 - call taker with the Boston Police Department, as an angry wife, who had attacked her husband before and called Mitchell repeatedly on Friday night while he was out with friends. When he returned, she slashed his tires and yelled so loudly that Mitchell's brother, who lived in the apartment below in the couple's three-family house, went upstairs to check on the couple. He found his brother in his bedroom, bleeding on the floor, Downes said.

Police questioned Fitzpatrick at length on Saturday and issued an arrest warrant for her on Sunday. She surrendered yesterday and stood in the court, crying at times, as about a dozen of her relatives and friends watched. She was ordered held on $250,000 cash bail, and a not-guilty plea was entered on her behalf.

Her Barnstable-based lawyer, Robert J. Galibois II , said that Fitzpatrick was defending herself against her husband, who was drunk and possibly high when he was fatally stabbed in the chest and abdomen. Galibois said the mother of five slashed Mitchell's tires to prevent him from driving under the influence.

Mitchell became enraged, followed her outside, and, when she tried to lock him out, forced the door open and jumped on her back as she tried to grab a phone to call for help, Galibois said.

Soon, he had her in a chokehold, and Fitzpatrick, still holding the knife she used on the tires, stabbed him twice in an upward motion, Galibois said. "Clearly, she fought back," he said.

Galibois said Mitchell had spent 10 years in prison for manslaughter and was charged with assault and battery on a former girlfriend two to three years ago.

As he spoke, several of Mitchell's friends and relatives in the courtroom became upset.

The differing accounts from police reports and lawyers portrayed a volatile and complex relationship between Fitzpatrick and Mitchell, who appeared to remain concerned about each other even during their final moments together. The couple had been married just over a year and did not have any children together.

When police arrived shortly after 4:30 a.m. , they found Fitzpatrick sitting next to Mitchell, applying pressure to his wounds, according to a police report. Fitzpatrick said her husband had been attacked before he arrived home, and Mitchell appar ently tried to back her story, saying that someone else had attacked him earlier.

Downes said that the officers did not find blood in the doorway or stairway that would have indicated he was stabbed before he got home. Police only found blood in the couple's bedroom.

A woman who described herself as Mitchell's former girlfriend of 11 years called the Globe yesterday and said that Mitchell was a good man who loved his five children. During their years together, Mitchell never beat her, said the woman, who identified herself only as Sha, 39. "He treated me really good," she said.

Later yesterday afternoon, Fitzpatrick's former husband, Derek Fitzpatrick, who is the father of her five young children, returned to the courtroom to try to post her bail. Those two also had a domestic dispute, according to police . In October 2003, Sharon Fitzpatrick filed a report with police, complaining that her husband, Derek Fitzpatrick, had beaten their son with a belt and pushed her .

Yesterday, Derek Fitzpatrick said they never fought. "She's probably one of the best mothers that I've ever seen," he said.

Maria Cramer can be reached at mcramer@globe.com.