The trial of Leon and Tanya Tripp is again on hold – possibly for months – while the defense appeals to the Supreme Court of Georgia a ruling admitting statements Leon Tripp made to police.
While a trial date was set for Monday, Chief Judge Daniel J. Craig heard instead motions to grant bond Monday for the Augusta couple accused of murdering their 16-year-old daughter LaTania Janell Carwell in 2017. Craig denied bond for both.
Attorney for Leon Tripp Nathanial L. Studelska had filed motions to suppress statements made by Leon Tripp to police on May 23 and 26 and June 2 and 7, shortly after Tripp was apprehended with his wife in Atlanta May 23, 2017.
Tripp and Carwell had been missing since Tanya Tripp reported Carwell left in April with her stepfather Leon Tripp to help a man, Maurice Jackson, at Clark’s Hill.
Police quickly determined the Tripps hadn’t been in contact with Jackson, and that Jackson needed no assistance from them. But they did discover Tanya Tripp was having conversations with Leon Tripp, Assistant District Attorney Deshala Dixon told the court Monday. They were also tinkering with an app that created fake IDs, she said.
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On May 23, U.S. Marshals located the Tripps together at an Atlanta U-Haul store and they were arrested.
Arguing for a bond for Leon Tripp, Studelska argued Tripp had already been in jail seven years and that the Supreme Court appeal would take an additional “significant amount of time.” Studelska is an attorney with the Northeast Georgia Capital Defender’s Office, although the case is no longer a death penalty case.
Attorney for Tanya Tripp, attorney Arnold Ragas said she’s been in jail 82 months and had no criminal history. Tripp had contacted police about Carwell’s disappearance and “never ran anywhere.” She went to Atlanta because she’d been evicted, and Leon Tripp had secured them housing there, Ragas said.
The arguments for bond ignore concerns by the crime’s victims, Dixon said. Carwell’s younger sister, now 14, now lives with an aunt, who is gravely concerned Tanya Tripp will attempt to get the girl back, she said.
Bond would give Tanya Tripp “a space to disappear,” Dixon said.
Leon Tripp, meanwhile, has two prior felonies, including an aggravated assault and an aggravated stalking, both against his ex-wife, she said. After his release from prison in 2015, Tripp moved in with his new wife Tanya Tripp and her two daughters.
Plus he’s under indictment for new charges including possession of a shank at the jail and obstruction of an officer for reaching for a deputy’s weapon, Dixon said.
In his order, Craig said Sheriff’s Investigator Lucas Grant left Leon Tripp alone in an interrogation room with a friend for two hours June 7 in a conversation recorded by the sheriff’s office. After Grant returned, he informed Tripp of his Miranda rights. Two days later, Tripp informed investigators he was represented by counsel who advised him not to speak to police. Craig allowed statements Tripp made to police after he was represented.
In a motion to suppress statements Tripp made June 7, Studelska argued the friend, Leroy Godfrey, was a childhood friend of Tripp’s from Atlanta acting as a police informant. Godfrey pressured Tripp to talk to police or he may face the death penalty, while Godfrey claimed he was “merely listening” to an old friend.
After Carwell’s body was found in a shallow grave near the Tripps’ house, Leon Tripp was indicted in March 2018 for murder, kidnapping, cruelty to children and concealing a death and Tanya Tripp for felony murder and concealing a death.
In November, District Attorney Jared Williams re-indicted the couple, removing the kidnapping charge and upgrading the charge against Tanya Tripp, saying she “acted in concert” with her husband to murder Carwell.
