Richter plans 2022 trial for deaths of two Georgia youngsters buried within the backyard

“I would like to be able to set up a jury in the first quarter of 2022. That may or may not be too optimistic. “

– Superior Court Judge F. Gates Peed

More than 200 pre-trial motions were filed by attorneys, WTOC-TV reported. Superior Court Judge F. Gates Peed said Thursday he was planning hearings to resolve them in August and hopes for a trial by next spring.

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“I would like to be able to set up a jury in the first quarter of 2022,” said Peed. “That might or might not be too optimistic.”

A sheriff’s investigator testified that Mary Crocker was starved, beaten, and handcuffed and naked in a dog crate by her father and stepfamily as punishment before she died. Later charges alleged that Elwyn Crocker Jr. received similar treatment.

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Two other family members – the children’s stepmother, Candice Crocker, and Roy Prater, Candice Crocker’s mother’s friend – pleaded guilty to the murder last year and agreed to testify against the others.

The three defendants awaiting trial pleaded not guilty. Her charges include malicious murder, serious crime, aggravated sexual violence, cruelty to children, concealment of someone else’s death, and false imprisonment.

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The judge has issued a gag order prohibiting attorneys, law enforcement officers, and witnesses from discussing the case outside the courtroom.