Brittany Pilkington is facing the death penalty if convicted of three counts of aggravated murder.
In November, her lawyers filed nearly 50 motions, including requests to move the trial, to disqualify the prosecutor’s office from the case and to dismiss the charges because of an interview conducted by a prosecutor’s office employee without Pilkington’s lawyer’s present.
On Monday, the state filed more than 30 responses to those motions. A hearing on two of them was scheduled to take place this morning, but Pilkington’s lawyers asked for a continuance.
Judge Mark O’Connor will now hear the motions to dismiss the indictment and to disqualify the prosecutor’s office at 10 a.m. Jan. 22.
EARLIER REPORT (Dec. 22, 2015)
Lawyers for the Bellefontaine mom who faces the death penalty for allegedly smothering her three sons to death continue their quest to have her trial moved out of Logan County.
Brittany Pilkington’s lawyers along with Logan County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Eric Stewart met with Logan County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark O’Connor on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the defense’s nearly 50 motions regarding the case.
Stewart objected to or wanted to file a reply argument to more than 30 of them.
Some of the requests include moving the trial out of Logan County, removing the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office from the case and not letting jurors see pictures of Pilkington’s deceased sons during the trial.
Family of the three boys said they don’t want certain images of the children displayed, specifically any pictures of the boys taken after their death by a coroner or police.
“There’s just things that don’t need to be shown in the public during a trial,” said Jeff Skaggs, Pilkington’s uncle.
Pilkington’s main defense lawyer, Kort Gatterdam, told the judge some of the motions his team filed were because of an interview Pilkington had with a member of the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office. That interview took place without any of her lawyers there and a grand jury returned their death penalty suggestion just days later, according to court documents.
Stewart told the judge his office did the interview in regards to a case they have against Pilkington’s husband and won’t use any of the information in her case.
O’Connor didn’t make any decisions in the conference Tuesday but said he would like to try to seat a local jury first before considering whether to move the trial or not. The judge and lawyers will next meet on Jan. 5 to discuss whether or not the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office should be removed from the case.
Pilkington is charged with three counts of aggravated murder, accused of smothering her sons to death one at a time over about a year. She could be sentenced to death if convicted.
Infant Niall Pilkington died in July 2014 and 4-year-old Gavin Pilkington died in April.
Authorities took custody of her daughter and third son, Noah Pilkington, after he was born in May. But a judge allowed them to return home because there wasn’t enough evidence to determine a cause of death for the first two boys.
Noah died Aug. 18, six days after he was returned to his parents’ custody.
Prosecutors have said Brittany Pilkington confessed to all three murders.
For more than an hour Pilkington sat between her lawyers Tuesday. She appeared to follow along with the proceedings, looking at her lawyer’s binder as the judge listed each motion.
Skaggs said the “politics” of Logan County and the small-town talk has tainted the image of Pilkington and that’s why they don’t think she will get a fair trial locally.
“Let somebody else hear it — a different prosecutor and a different judge,” he said.
Logan County Prosecutor Bill Goslee had previously told Springfield News-Sun reporters that the coverage of this case has been national, and a change of venue wouldn’t change anything.
The case is scheduled to go to trial in early March, but Goslee has said he expects that date to be pushed back.
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