Murder Conviction Upheld By Ga. Supreme Court

CARTERSVILLE, GA — The Supreme Court of Georgia has upheld the murder conviction of two Bartow County siblings who were found guilty in the March 2013 fatal shooting of a 47-year-old Cartersville resident.

The court on Monday, March 5 rejected Steve Mark Eller and Tammy Lynn Murphy's appeal, which argued that the evidence was insufficient to maintain Murphy's convictions, the court committed "reversible error" in allowing alternate jurors to sit in on deliberations and their attorneys provided inadequate services.

In March 2013, 47-year-old Danny Lamar Gravely, who was living with Murphy, his girlfriend, and her brother, Eller, was found dead in the bed of his truck on Red Top Road with a single gunshot to the head. The case was initially by Emerson police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, but the Bartow County Sheriff's Office got involved when investigators discovered the crime occurred in the sheriff's office's jurisdiction.

Sheriff's office investigators believed an argument at the home where Eller, Murphy and Gravely all lived at the time led to the shooting (For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here).

Murphy and Eller were each charged with murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime, tampering with evidence and concealing the death of a person. They went to trial in August 2014, and a jury convicted Eller of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, concealing a death and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime. For her part, a jury convicted Murphy of felony murder, aggravated assault and concealing a death. Eller was sentenced to life plus 15 years while Murphy received a life-plus-five-year sentence.

The court's opinion states that the evidence in the case shows both parties went to great length to conceal Gravely's death, "working together to dispose of his body, get rid of the murder weapon, clean up and destroy evidence at the residence, and then lie to Gravely's family and law enforcement." Citing another court case, the opinion also notes there is "sufficient" evidence to infer that Murphy conspired with her brother to conceal Gravely's death.

While the court did agree that it was an error to allow the alternate jurors to be allowed to attend the deliberations of the main jury panel, the opinion found that the defendants were not harmed by the error and pointed to court transcripts stating their attorneys were fine with that decision.

The opinion also rejected the defendants' claims that their counsel at trial was ineffective. The pair argued their lawyers didn't object to the alternate jurors or expert testimony that indicates the gunshot wound Gravely suffered was not due to an accident, withdrew plans to introduce the victim's violent acts towards others as evidence, failed to counter hearsay arguments and failed to introduce a certified copy of a no-contact order stemming from an incident in which Gravely admitted to hitting Murphy. Citing other court cases, the opinion found the appellants' rationale to be inadequate.

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