One teen charged in Sam Poss killing pleads not guilty; Hearing for second teen Feb. 1

Two teenagers charged with killing 18-year-old Sam Poss appeared briefly Wednesday in Houston County Superior Court.

Brandon Warren pleaded not guilty to malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, concealing the death of another and tampering with evidence.

Warren’s attorney, Jeff Grube, said he expected to file additional motions related to the case after he received additional discovery about the prosecution’s case.

Co-defendant Dakota White was granted a continuance until next month for his arraignment.

“We’re still short discovery information that we need to be able to advise Mr. White on how to proceed, so we’d ask the court to continue his arraignment,” said Angie Coggins, Houston County’s chief assistant public defender.

District Attorney George Hartwig said he had no objection to a continuance to Feb. 1 “to see where we are at.” He added that he would have no objection if the defense wanted to continue the arraignment further.

Judge G.E. “Bo” Adams said he would like the attorneys to come back Feb. 1 and the court will take an assessment of the case’s progress at that point “to see where we stand and go from there.”

After the hearings, Grube said he expects to file a change of venue to have the trial held elsewhere.

“I don’t know how he can get a fair trial here,” Grube said. “Too many people have already made up their minds. I think that’s as obvious as the nose on my face.”

Grube noted that the case already has been heavily covered by the media and that the Poss family is well known in Houston County. He said that will make it difficult to get a fair and impartial jury.

“This is going to be a long and complicated case and very difficult because of the age of everyone,” Grube said.

According to the prosecution, White and Warren, both 18, had initially planned to kill a 12-year-old they knew before choosing Poss as their victim, and at one time also struck a suicide pact with each other. The teens allegedly wanted to know what it would feel like to kill someone. Those details emerged at a previous hearing for White in which bond was denied.

White and Warren were arrested five days after Poss went missing in October. His parents, who were in the courtroom Wednesday, thought he’d been at White’s house repairing his computer and decided to walk home but never arrived.

This story was originally published January 4, 2017 at 3:57 PM with the headline "One teen charged in Sam Poss killing pleads not guilty; Hearing for second teen Feb. 1."