McDaniel indicted on murder charge in Giddings killing, 30 child sex charges

For Karen Giddings, Tuesday morning didn’t just mark the indictment of the man accused of killing her daughter.

Word of the development left her shaking.

Even so, it meant one more step in the legal process toward perhaps finding some semblance of justice.

That and the realization that in open court someday, however long from now, she may well hear stinging details of how the eldest of her three girls, Lauren, was killed and her body dismembered in a slaying that has rocked lives from Georgia to Maryland.

“In a lot of ways I know it’s inevitable,” Karen Giddings, 50, said by phone from Baltimore, just northeast of the Giddings family’s Laurel, Md., hometown.

Karen Giddings’ words came a few hours after Bibb County grand jurors indicted Stephen Mark McDaniel on one count of murder in the June killing of 27-year-old Lauren Giddings, his Mercer University law school classmate and next-door neighbor.

Jurors also indicted McDaniel on 30 counts of sexual exploitation of children. The exploitation charges stem from images of children involved in sexual acts that were found by authorities in McDaniel’s apartment during the investigation of Giddings’ death.

Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney Greg Winters said the timing of presenting the murder and sex charges to grand jurors didn’t have anything to do with a motion filed by McDaniel’s lawyer last week requesting that a judge reconsider whether McDaniel should be granted bond.

“Each individual case moves at a different pace,” Winters said. “This is just the pace that this case has moved.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, McDaniel’s lawyer, Floyd Buford, said he hadn’t decided whether he will continue to seek bond for McDaniel.

McDaniel, a 26-year-old from Lilburn, has been in jail since July 1, the day after Giddings’ dismembered torso was found in a roll-away trash can beside the downtown Macon apartment building where he and Giddings lived.

Giddings was last seen June 25. Macon police investigating her apparent disappearance discovered her remains outside the Barristers Hall apartment complex at 1058 Georgia Ave. on the morning of June 30.

Buford said he planned to discuss the pending bond motion with McDaniel and McDaniel’s family.

“It’s something we’re going to think about and talk about,” he said.

When contacted on her cell phone by a Telegraph reporter a couple of hours after McDaniel was indicted, McDaniel’s mother ended the conversation before the reporter could ask a question.

“We have no comment,” Glenda McDaniel said.

If Buford continues to seek bond, a hearing is tentatively scheduled for Thursday.

Tuesday’s indictment has no bearing on whether a judge can set a bond for McDaniel, Winters said.

Buford said he last spoke with McDaniel on Monday night in a meeting that lasted about an hour.

“We had a very good conversation,” he said. “He’s in good spirits.”

McDaniel insists he is innocent, Buford said. “He wants a trial.”

The next step in the case will be a yet-to-be-scheduled arraignment hearing. There, McDaniel must enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.

By the time of the arraignment, Winters must announce whether he will seek the death penalty in McDaniel’s case.

“That decision has not been made yet,” Winters said Tuesday afternoon.

Tuesday’s indictment did not include two counts of burglary, the charges that initially led McDaniel to be incarcerated on accusations that he illegally entered his neighbors’ apartments.

Winters said he chose not to present the charges to the grand jury.

“That’s not to say that we might not go forward with them at a later date,” he said.

Karen Giddings was at church, working with a youth group, Monday night when her husband got a call from Winters saying that McDaniel’s case would be presented to grand jurors Tuesday.

Her husband, Billy, tried to call her.

But she didn’t find out about the court proceedings until Tuesday morning, Karen Giddings said.

“It’s somewhat of an emotional whirlwind. ... All kinds of emotions have run through me,” she said Tuesday afternoon.

Her first feeling was one of excitement. It helped to know that the case was progressing from the “snail’s pace” of recent months.

“The second emotion was fear to the point that my knees were shaking,” Giddings said, adding that she has at times tried to shield herself from some of the more disturbing aspects of her daughter’s slaying.

For Kaitlyn Wheeler, Lauren’s 24-year-old sister, the indictment brought relief and feelings of thankfulness.

She said that for her family, the indictment “was kind of the only option in our minds.”

“It’s kind of like a weird feeling,” she said.

“We’re relieved, but there’s nothing good coming from this situation. It’s becoming more real. Every time we get a step closer, the reality hits home that she’s gone.

“Obviously we are hoping for any justice, but we’re never going to get what we want out of this -- Lauren back and our lives back on track.”

Wheeler noted that it is also hard to accept that a group of strangers, the grand jurors, now know more about the case against the man accused of killing her sister than family members do.

“We don’t know any more than the public as far as I know,” she said. “Before, at least, we were on the same playing field. ... Just knowing that (more evidence) is out there, it’s hard.”

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398. To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.

This story was originally published November 16, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "McDaniel indicted on murder charge in Giddings killing, 30 child sex charges."