Judge Denies Change of Venue in Cowart Murder Trial

A Bartow County Superior Court judge has denied a change of venue request from lawyers representing a mother and her boyfriend charged with murdering the woman’s one-year-old child.

Judge Carey Nelson on Jan. 14 denied the request to move the trial out of Bartow County for Austin Levi Payne and Brandy Ann Boyd, who are both charged with the murder of Journey Ann Cowart, The Daily Tribune News reports.

Nelson also imposed a gag order on the case, and denied a request to suppress statements made during interviews with the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office.

You can read more of the newspaper’s article here.

The defendants were arraigned in November and both entered not guilty pleas. A Bartow County grand jury in September indicted both Payne and Boyd on 22 counts, including malice murder, felony murder, cruelty to children in the first degree, aggravated battery and battery.

Together, Boyd and Payne face four counts each of malice murder, six counts of felony murder, three counts of aggravated battery and one count of battery. Boyd faces seven counts of cruelty to children in the first degree while Payne faces all eight of those counts.

Both defendants were granted a $1 million bond in May.

Journey Ann Cowart died at Cartersville Medical Center on Jan. 21, 2014, after she was taken to the emergency room because she was not breathing.

Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap previously told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Journey was beaten to death, with “a fractured skull, blunt force trauma to the stomach.” He also said there was evidence of previous abuse.

The pair were initially charged with first-degree cruelty to children and aggravated battery, but the charges were upgraded after an autopsy revealed the extent of Journey’s injuries.

Blake Cowart, the father of Journey Ann Cowart, was found dead in the Etowah River in May 2013 after he had been missing for more than a month.

(Photo: Austin Levi Payne, left, and Brandy Ann Cowart. Credit: Bartow County Sheriff‘s Office)