DA to seek death penalty for McDaniel
Billy Giddings had known for a while that authorities might seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing his daughter, Lauren. So it wasn’t a shock Thursday when prosecutors made it official: They aim to send Stephen Mark McDaniel to Georgia’s death row.
Billy Giddings wonders if the prospect of capital punishment might prompt the 26-year-old suspect to cooperate with authorities, to provide information about where his slain daughter’s remains might be -- if, in fact, McDaniel is responsible.
“I’m not sure whether this will put the heat on him or not. I’m not sure what state of mind he’s in. I’ve been given no indication about how he feels. ... I hope it turns up the heat a little (and leads to) a little bit of talking back and forth,” Billy Giddings said.
He says he and his family have had private discussions for months about the possibility that prosecutors might seek the ultimate punishment for his 27-year-old daughter’s alleged killer.
“Quite frankly, we really don’t have another choice at this point that I can see. There’s not too many other options,” he said, adding that he and Bibb County District Attorney Greg Winters had been in touch “on a regular basis” for the past week or so.
“We’ve both come to the same conclusion that this is probably the right way forward at this time. Today’s just the day that he suggested we move forward,” Billy Giddings, 56, said by phone from Maryland, where Lauren was raised and her family still lives.
It has been nearly half a year since Lauren Giddings’ dismembered torso was found wrapped in plastic bags and stuffed in a trash can beside her Georgia Avenue apartment in downtown Macon.
She and McDaniel, a Lilburn native, had been next-door neighbors and were members of Mercer University law school’s May graduating class. A police officer helping search for Giddings discovered her torso June 30, four and a half days after she was last heard from.
McDaniel was jailed the next day on unrelated burglary charges and, in early August, was charged with her murder. His attorney, Floyd Buford, said the district attorney informed him Wednesday of prosecutors’ intentions to pursue the death penalty.
“I am not surprised. I am disappointed,” Buford said. “I was hoping that it would not be a death penalty case. From our side, it doesn’t seem like it merits” capital punishment.
As of mid-afternoon Thursday, Buford hadn’t told his client of the death penalty development in his case, but said he planned to soon.
The possibility McDaniel could face death if convicted is troubling for McDaniel’s parents, Buford said. “They are convinced their son is innocent. ... They are disappointed. They are confident their son will be exonerated.”
Reached by phone, McDaniel’s mother said, “We have no comment.”
McDaniel is scheduled for arraignment Monday in Bibb Superior Court on sexual exploitation of children charges brought against him. A separate hearing will be scheduled later on the murder charge.
There are presently five death penalty cases involving seven suspects pending in Bibb County.
Meanwhile, on the day the state announced its intention to have McDaniel put to death, one of his alleged victim’s closest friends from college shared personal glimpses that portray Giddings as young woman full of life.
They came from Giddings’ own hand, in a Facebook post from early 2009.
Giddings told of her love for her mother’s PB&J sandwiches, of how her radio “hasn’t left the country station since ... ever,” and of how she drank “at least four Coke Zero’s a day plus two cups of coffee.”
She wrote, “I hate tattoos, unless there’s a really good drunken story behind it and not on my body. The combo of needles and permanency scares me.”
Giddings wrote of still sleeping with her beloved stuffed animal bunny, Snowball, and that she was “obsessed with flossing.”
She mentioned that she ate oatmeal and a hard-boiled egg for breakfast each day, that she wanted an autumn wedding and to have a big family: “two boys and two girls in the following order: boy, girl, girl, boy with the first daughter named Lillian Teresa.”
Giddings, whose middle name was Teresa, said she attended Mass three times a week. She kidded that she didn’t “understand the difference between a caribou and a moose.”
“I’ve lived in five places in my short life: Scaggsville (Md.), Atlanta, Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria), Lubbock and Macon. ... I’ll never figure out why I moved away from my family,” she wrote, “but I’m sure I’ll stay in Georgia.”
The Facebook post is a keepsake for Kristin Miller. She and Giddings met in 2002 as undergraduates at Agnes Scott College.
Miller, 28, received word of Thursday’s development in a text message. A lawyer herself, Miller had been in a meeting at her Atlanta office.
“I really couldn’t react to it in the meeting,” she said, “but after I kind of processed it, my immediate reaction was tears.”
Miller said the news was “bittersweet,” that “it’ll never be enough, but I’m very, very glad to see (Greg Winters, the DA) take such a bold action. ... I’m happy and ready to see him be Lauren’s last voice and her advocate. ... He seems like he’s really going to bat for Lauren.”
Miller, from memory, recalled another passage from that self-describing Facebook post Giddings wrote in early 2009.
In it, along with the fun-loving remarks and observations, Giddings credited Miller with encouraging her to study law and discover her true calling: “As painful as law school has been ... I will never know how to thank or repay Kristin for insisting it was where I belong -- it is.”
To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398. To contact writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.
This story was originally published December 9, 2011 at 12:00 AM with the headline "DA to seek death penalty for McDaniel."