Garrard hearing

Joyce Garrard

Etowah County Circuit Judge Billy Ogletree denied a motion Friday by Joyce Garrard’s attorneys for more information about the grand jury vote that indicted for capital murder in the death of her grandaughter.   Garrard was indicted on March 9, 2012, by an Etowah County grand jury for capital murder. She is accused of running her 9-year-old granddaughter, Savannah Hardin, for three hours Feb. 17, 2012, as punishment for telling a lie.  Savannah was taken to Gadsden Regional Medical Center that day before being transferred to Children’s of Alabama in Birmingham, where she died three days later.  Garrard’s attorneys asked on March 5 for the numerical vote of the grand jury indictment, citing the Code of Alabama requirement that votes of at least 12 of the 18 grand jurors are necessary for an indictment.  The motion said if less than 18 people voted to indict Garrard, then the presumption of guilt was not that great, and if her guilt is in question, then the presumption is not great that Garrard will receive the death penalty.  The motion was denied March 6. A status conference hearing in the case is scheduled for April 4 and Garrard’s trial is set to begin June 23.