Tammy @ Sidney Moorer
The man convicted in a high-profile disappearance case in Horry County will soon go before South Carolina’s highest court.
Online records show a hearing for Sidney Moorer will take place May 17 before the South Carolina Supreme Court in connection to his obstruction of justice charge.
Moorer was found guilty in Sept. 2017 of obstruction of justice in connection to Heather Elvis’ disappearance.
Elvis was last seen or heard from on Dec. 18, 2013, and her body has never been found.
Victim: Heather Elvis
During Moorer’s trial, Sgt. Danny Furr testified that when he and Moorer spoke on the phone on Dec. 19, 2013, Moorer changed his story about when he last spoke to Elvis and failed to mention that he had called her from a payphone and spoke to her more than once.
He and his legal team filed an appeal in December 2020 to the South Carolina Supreme Court, looking to acquit him on the obstruction of justice charge - arguing the trial judge denied Moorer’s directed verdict motion.
The South Carolina Court of Appeals denied a similar appeal earlier that year, saying the trial court did not err because there was enough evidence to prove Moorer’s guilt.
Moorer was also convicted of kidnapping Elvis during a separate trial in September 2019. His wife Tammy was also convicted on kidnapping charges in October 2018. The two are both currently serving 30-year prison sentences.
Moorer is also appealing his kidnapping conviction. A hearing in the S.C. Court of Appeals is set for April 13.
In the legal brief, Moorer claims that the conviction should be overturned because the court erred in reversing its decision to try the case in Georgetown County and instead transferred it back to Horry County where “social media saturation pervaded the case” and he couldn’t receive a fair trial. Documents also claim that the court erred in denying Moorer’s motion for a directed verdict.
The brief goes on to state the court made a mistake in qualifying Grant Fredericks as an expert in forensic video analysis. Fredericks testified about surveillance video showing a truck driving to and from Peachtree Landing where Elvis’ car was found. The brief states that Fredericks made “flawed conclusions” about seeing Moorer’s truck driving and excluded all other vehicles based on headlight patterns.
Tammy Moorer is also appealing her kidnapping conviction but a decision has not been made in that case.