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BARTOE — Brian Riley, the man charged with murdering four members of a North Lakeland family in September 2021, appeared in court in Bartow on Tuesday after prosecutors sentenced Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives to 11-year sentences. An old woman who was seriously injured in the above air raids.
Days after the attack, sheriff detectives interviewed the girl twice at Tampa General Hospital as she was recovering from multiple gunshot wounds.
The girl is scheduled to testify at Riley’s trial, but Tuesday’s hearing was to determine whether an audio interview with the girl would be admissible in this case.
The prosecution and the defense team faced off at 10th A District Circuit Court hearing focused on the cross-examination of Sheriff’s Office Detective Britney Wright. She interviewed a girl who is now 13 years old.
After establishing detectives on the stand and being trained and certified in forensic interviewing techniques, Assistant State Attorney Michaela Perry told Circuit Court Judge J. Kevin Abdney that the girl was credible and truthful. I asked for a ruling to accept an audio interview.
“These are credible statements,” Perry said.
Assistant public defender Julie A. McNeill countered that the girl was taking painkillers while recovering from the gunshot wound, and that her mother recommended that she request a second interview. citing discrepancies in the girl’s statement.
She gave two versions of who was shot first in the house, McNeill said. And the girl said that Riley called her friend.
“There are contradictions in the facts,” McNeil said.
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seeking deathThe state plans to seek the death penalty for Brian Riley, who murdered a family in North Lakeland.
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Perry claimed the girl heard the deputies responding to the incident outside the home, and given that she had been shot multiple times, the voice of the sheriff’s deputies was from someone else. may have believed that
Prosecutors also said the girl consistently said who was shot, regardless of the order in which they were killed, and that she “did not lie knowingly.”
McNeil also argued that there was case law that did not allow both witness statements and audio interviews because the girl could be called as a state witness during the trial. This increases the risk of overdosing and can be ‘unnecessarily cumulative’, leading to ‘inappropriate reinforcement’.
Riley is guilty of all charges in connection with the September 5, 2021 shootings of Judge Gleeson, 40, Teresa Lanham, 33, a 3-month-old baby boy, and Lanham’s mother, Cathy Delgado, 62. He faces 22 charges. .
A grand jury will hand down an indictment containing 22 counts against Riley on Sept. 21, 2021. They included four counts of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, kidnapping, aggravated child abuse, two counts of robbery, seven counts of attempted first-degree murder against law enforcement officers, cruelty to animals, arson, and his death. included four shootings of occupied dwelling.
The defense argued that on April 8, 2022, Riley may have known what he was doing but may not have understood the consequences, and that at the time of the crime he did He filed an intention to pursue a defense of insanity, alleging that he was wrong, court records show.
If Riley is found not guilty on grounds of insanity, the trial ends without a penalty stage. The state attorney’s office is seeking the death penalty against Riley.
Also at a hearing on Tuesday, both men told Abdonee they were still waiting for depositions and medical records from experts in preparation for the trial.
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