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Lawyers wrangle over girls’ arrests

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@thecitizennews.com

The legal sparring between defense attorneys and the prosecution began in earnest Tuesday morning at the court hearing for Holly Ann Harvey, 15, and Sandy Ketchum, 16, who are accused of stabbing to death Holly’s grandparents, Carl and Sarah Collier, in their north Fayette home Aug. 2.

Attorneys on both sides raised objections to Chief Magistrate Charles R. Floyd, who ultimately ruled there was enough evidence to bind both girls’ cases over to a Fayette County grand jury.

Indicating a possible defense strategy, Ketchum’s attorney, Lloyd Walker, asked chief sheriff’s detective Bruce Jordan if he tried to contact the girl’s parents before interviewing her.

Jordan said he did not speak with either of Ketchum’s parents before the interview at the Tybee Island Police Department during which she confessed her and Holly’s roles in the killings of Holly’s grandparents, Carl and Sarah Collier.

Jordan added that other detectives were trying to track down both girls’ families, but after learning from District Attorney Bill McBroom that both would be tried as adults, it wasn’t necessary to get the parents’ permission, Jordan indicated.

Walker also probed how the U.S. Marshal’s Service tracked Mr. Collier’s truck as the two suspects sped toward Tybee Island after the killings. That drew a quick objection from Chief Assistant District Attorney Dan Hiatt, who said revealing that information might jeopardize current U.S. Marshals investigations.

Hiatt argued that the details of how the vehicle was tracked were irrelevant to the proceedings. Walker countered that if the U.S. Government had a super-secret technology that allows them to track the movements of private citizens in their personal vehicles, “I’m sure the rest of the country would be interested in that.”

Floyd ruled that the question could be asked of Jordan in special testimony behind closed doors in the judge’s chambers.

Walker also objected to the state’s use of hearsay testimony, which is typically allowed at probable cause hearings; such testimony would be impermissible at a trial, however.