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By Fred Guarino
The Lowndes Signal
The trial of Lowndes County triple murder case defendant, Deandra Marquis Lee will begin April 6, 2015, according to the office of Lowndes County Circuit Clerk.
In September Lowndes County Circuit Court Judge Terri Bozeman Lovell granted a motion to delay the Lee trial for a second time. Early this month, on Oct. 3, she set the April 6 date for the trail to begin, according to the Office of Circuit Clerk Ruby Jones-Thomas.
Lovell previously ordered a mental evaluation of Lee and previously granted a defense motion to continue Lee’s trial to the October term of court.
However, defense attorneys for Lee filed a motion in Lowndes County Circuit Court on Aug. 22 to delay his trial past Oct. 14.
According to court records, “The defendant and his attorneys need additional time to adequately prepare for this case,” and, “defense experts cannot be ready for trial by October 14, 2014.”
Lee is represented by attorneys Jerry L. Thornton of Hayneville and Logan R. Taylor of Hayneville.
On Tuesday, Sept. 9, according to court records, Lovell issued a new order which states, “This matter is before the court on a motion to continue filed by the defendant, and the motion having been considered and for good cause shown, it is ordered that the above cases are hereby continued from the October 2014 criminal trial term.”
At the time of the latest motion to continue, Lowndes County District Attorney Charlotte M. Tesmer said, “We are ready to try this case to get closure for the victims’ families. But I do understand that it takes a great deal of preparation by the defense.”
Lee faces six capital murder charges in connection with the 2012 deaths of 9-year-old twins, Jordan and Taylor Dejerinett, from Montgomery, and their 73-year-old caretaker, Jack Mac Girdner of Hope Hull.
On June 5, 2012 the bodies were discovered by the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office and the Alabama Bureau of Investigation (ABI) on a dirt road off of Alabama Highway 21 near Hayneville, three miles south of U.S. Highway 80.
The three had been reported missing on Monday, June 4, 2012.
The defendant, Lee, was 22 at the time of the crime.