Source: All forensics testing in Giddings case now complete
Though the death penalty case against alleged dismemberment killer Stephen McDaniel has been in a legal holding pattern, in part because of a judge’s heart surgery, behind-the-scenes developments in recent weeks show progress on at least two fronts.
In a prosecution that could lean heavily on dozens of potential pieces of evidence that Macon police collected last summer and sent to FBI and GBI labs, all forensic testing and analysis is now complete, a source familiar with the investigation told The Telegraph on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a south Georgia judge has been asked to determine whether Bibb County Chief Superior Court Judge S. Phillip Brown properly assigned himself to preside over McDaniel’s capital murder case.
In January, prosecutors asked that Brown review the guidelines that determine how judges come to oversee Bibb death penalty cases and to hold a hearing. The motion could result in Brown’s being taken off the case.
McDaniel, then 25, was jailed in the predawn hours of July 1, 2011, less than 24 hours after his Mercer University law school classmate and next-door neighbor Lauren Giddings was found slain at their Georgia Avenue apartment building.
Investigators found Giddings’ torso, bundled in plastic trash bags, in a roll-away curbside garbage bin at the 16-unit complex across the street from Mercer’s Walter F. George School of Law.
Though authorities and members of Giddings’ family have searched for the 27-year-old Maryland native’s remains, no other body parts have turned up.
No evidence has made a connection between Giddings’ severed limbs and the skeletal remains found last week -- a skull, ribs and leg bones -- behind a Gray Highway shopping center.
McDaniel has been in the Bibb County jail’s infirmary and turned 26 since his incarceration began eight months ago on the heels of his May law school graduation. He has been working on his own defense.
“Stephen is very, very smart. He’s very articulate. He’s very knowledgeable. We actually have him reviewing issues relevant to his case,” said Floyd Buford, one of McDaniel’s lawyers. “He has hands-on involvement with his case ... helping us and doing research ... as sort of a joint approach.”
Judge Ronnie Joe Lane of the Pataula Circuit Superior Court, which includes Seminole and Quitman counties, will decide whether Brown correctly assigned himself to preside over McDaniel’s case, according to an order signed March 6 by Administrative Judge George F. Nunn Jr.
Brown wrote a letter in February requesting that the District Court administrator appoint a chief judge from another circuit to handle the motion as well as a nearly identical one filed by prosecutors in a Peach County death case.
In the letter, obtained by The Telegraph, Brown wrote that the McDaniel case and the Peach County case needed reassigning after the retirement of Chief Judge Martha Christian. Christian had been the judge for both cases.
Death penalty cases are doled out on a rotating basis to judges based on seniority and the number of death cases assigned to each judge. The last case had been assigned to the newest judge, Howard Simms, Brown’s letter said.
Brown, the most senior judge, was next in line to receive a case. Because the Peach County case is awaiting a ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court, Brown assigned the McDaniel case first, according to the letter.
The case was assigned before Gov. Nathan Deal appointed Judge Philip T. Raymond III to fill the vacant judgeship created by Christian’s retirement.
Buford said a bond motion and other court filings have been put on hold due to Brown’s medical leave from the bench.
District Attorney Greg Winters said no hearing has been set.
McDaniel’s defense team has not filed a response to the prosecution’s motion.
“We don’t object,” Buford said Tuesday.
To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398. To call writer Joe Kovac Jr., call 744-4397.
This story was originally published March 14, 2012 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Source: All forensics testing in Giddings case now complete."