Attorneys for a Brunswick man convicted of murder and sentenced to death, whose case was highlighted in The Augusta Press’ series Golden Isles Injustice, have won a partial appellate victory.
A judge appointed to preside over David Edenfield’s habeas corpus petition found reason not to overturn his conviction in the murder of a 6-year-old boy in March 2007, but to reverse the death sentence.
Edenfield, his wife, Peggy, and son, George, as well as a family friend Donald Dale were all arrested the night of March 8, 2007, when 6-year-old Christopher Barrios seemingly vanished from the Canal Mobile Home Park were he and the Edenfields lived. A week later, Christopher’s body was found in a trash bag dumped on a side road near the Brunswick airport not far from the trailer park.
After hours of repeated questioning, the Edenfields and Dale confessed, though none could tell or show Glynn County Police Department investigators where Christopher’s body was nor provid any information that led to physical evidence. The Edenfields and Dale are intellectually impaired, George Edenfield to such an extent he remains incompetent to stand trial.
In an Aug. 29 order, Superior Court Judge Bonnie Chessher Oliver of the Northeastern Judicial Circuit found David Edenfield – the only one who stood trial in Christopher’s slaying – was entitled to a new sentencing hearing because of ineffective assistance of counsel.
As Oliver noted in her opinion, such a finding requires two conditions to be true to overcome the “strong presumption” that an attorney did not provide reasonable professional services. First, a defendant must show that he was prejudiced, and that if not for the attorney’s unreasonable acts or deficiencies, it is reasonable to believe a different outcome was probable.
In Edenfield’s case, the judge found that the investigation and presentation of mitigation evidence – reasons presented to a jury to sway against the imposition of a death sentence – was “abysmally deficient.”
Witnesses weren’t prepped, the defense had no real strategy and the defense was entirely rushed, the judge found. The trial team knew at the time of trial it was dysfunctional, unprepared and a “horror show,” Oliver wrote.
MORE: Golden Isles Injustice: Brunswick Judicial District marked by a ‘culture of cover-up’
A chief failure, Oliver wrote, was in presenting witnesses who testified David Edenfield was “slow” but could work adequately and served in the Army. Oliver wrote that jurors might have believed as she did that the Army wouldn’t accept anyone intellectually impaired. But during the Vietnam War there was a special program to recruit such men, the Project 100,000.
David Edenfield was a cook in the Army. Before his arrest he had been steadily employed as a cook in a fast-food restaurant. His wife, who is also intellectually impaired, pleaded guilty to reduced charges and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. Dale pleaded guilty to making a false statement and was sentenced to five years in custody. George Edenfield has remained hospitalized since his arrest.
Both sides filed notice of appeal of Oliver’s rulings last month. The Supreme Court of Georgia has docketed the cases for March 2023.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
