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Monday, September 17, 2018

// Tammy Moorer Trial to go Forward // Motion to Dismiss Rejected //






By Kaitlin Stansell, Anchor
CONNECT
By Rob Blomquist
CONNECT

 
Tammy Moorer. (Source: JRLDC)Tammy Moorer. (Source: JRLDC)
A judge has dismissed several motions filed by Tammy Moorer’s attorney ahead of her upcoming trial for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.
She’s set to go before a judge and jury for the first time for her alleged involvement in Heather Elvis’s disappearance. The Socastee woman went missing in December 2013. 
Tammy is scheduled to go to trial the week of October 8, 2018. 
According to an order filed this week, Tammy’s attorney had asked for a list of things, including for the gag order that’s been on the case since 2014 to be lifted and to change the venue for the trial.
The other requests were a motion to dismiss (speedy trial right), motion to dismiss (violation attorney client privilege), motion to exclude testimony (headlight spread pattern), motion to allow testimony (unavailable alibi witness), according to the order.
It also said defending council had until July 13, 2018 to file any remaining motions in the case. However, they were dated August 8, 2018, giving the judge reason to dismiss the motions.
Earlier this month, the state’s highest court was asked to decide how Tammy Moorer’s upcoming trial should be handled. It could be a joint trial between both her and her husband, Sidney Moorer, who faces the same charges.
The 15th Circuit Solicitor’s Office has asked the South Carolina Supreme Court to consolidate the cases under a single judge. If they won’t approve that, then the solicitor’s office has asked that Sidney Moorer’s cases be sent back to the Fifteenth Circuit Chief Administrative Judge for General Sessions, so it can be treated like any other case in Horry County. Right now, Judge Markley Dennis still holds jurisdiction over Sidney’s case, “creating a clear discrepancy in the status of the two cases even though the charges and evidence are similar,” according to court documents.
The State has told the SC Supreme Court they are prepared to go forward on all charges against the couple as early as October 8, 2018.
The State noted in their motion, filed July 19, 2018, Judge Dennis has not responded to either party on the issue of joining the Moorers cases under one trial.
“The State will present the same evidence against both defendants including the fact the defendants were conspiring to commit the crime,” court documents said. “Several witnesses from outside the Circuit will testify in the trial or trials, so it would be unduly burdensome to those witnesses to testify to the same facts and circumstances on two different occasions and possibly in two different locations.”
The Moorers are accused of kidnapping Heather Elvis, who went missing in December 2013. Sidney is currently serving time for obstruction of justice in the case.

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// Defense attorneys for Tammy Moorer used the jurors’ statements during a Wednesday court hearing as they argued that Tammy’s trial should be moved from Horry County // Judge Benjamin Culbertson rejected that effort // Judge Culbertson also Rejected an effort by Tammy Moorer’s attorneys for separate trials //


BY ALEX LANG
September 05, 2018 04:42 PM
Updated September 05, 2018 04:50 PM
Two jurors say they faced harassment inside the jury room and following the trial of Sidney Moore for his alleged role in the Heather Elvis kidnapping.
One juror reported they faced harassment and intimidation from other jurors as they deliberated Moorer’s guilt. That trial ended in a mistrial.
Another juror reported threats and harassment — mostly on social media — after the trial.
Defense attorneys for Tammy Moorer used the jurors’ statements during a Wednesday court hearing as they argued that Tammy’s trial should be moved from Horry County. Judge Benjamin Culbertson rejected that effort.
The cases of Tammy and Sidney Moorer, her husband, have drawn interest across the country. The duo is accused of kidnapping and conspiracy in the case of Heather Elvis, who was 20 years old when she vanished Dec. 18, 2013, and has not been found. Her car was discovered at Peachtree boat landing in Socastee.
Both Moorers were charged with kidnapping and murder in the initial case. Prosecutors eventually dropped the murder charges. Sidney Moorer went to trial on the kidnapping charge in 2016, but a jury deadlocked.
That case has not been retried and remains active.
He was found guilty last year of obstructing the police investigation. Judge R. Markley Dennis, who was appointed to hear the case, sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Duration 2:24
Moorer found guilty by jury in obstruction of justice case
Sidney Moorer was found guilty by a jury for obstructing justice.
By Jason Lee
In April, a grand jury indicted both Sidney and Tammy Moorer for conspiracy to kidnap. The most recent indictments do not name Elvis as the victim, but say the Moorers conspired on the day Elvis disappeared.
Judge Culbertson previously set an Oct. 8 trial date for Tammy Moorer. But that date is in question as the parties await a state’s Supreme Court order as to whether Tammy’s and Sidney’s cases will be joined together under the same judge.
A ruling assigning the cases to the same judge could cause trial delays.
Judge Culbertson also Rejected an effort by Tammy Moorer’s attorneys for separate trials — one for the kidnapping charge and one for the conspiracy charge. Senior Assistant Solicitor Nancy Livesay argued for one trial and said both charges stem from the same event.

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