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Grandmother pleads not guilty in drowning death
Prosecutors have lessened the charges against a 71-year-old German woman accused of drowning her 5-year-old grandson in a bathtub on St. George Island on Jan. 4.
After initially charging her with first degree murder, which can carry the death penalty, the state attorney’s office has charged Marianne Bordt with second degree murder along with aggravated child abuse with a deadly weapon.
Bordt’s Tallahassee attorney, Maria Ines Suber, who handles capital cases for the Second Judicial Circuit’s Office of the Public Defender, said she expects that prosecutors will empanel a grand jury next week in the case. A grand jury is required if prosecutors want to seek a first degree murder charge.
“If the case is taken to a grand jury, it could be first-degree (murder), second degree or something less, or no charges,” said Suber.
Assisting in Bordt’s defense is Kevin Steiger, who handles cases for the public defender’s office in Apalachicola.
Suber has filed a not guilty plea on behalf of Bordt, who is incarcerated at the Leon County Jail as she awaits Circuit Judge James Hankinson to hear her case in the Franklin County Courthouse. The lawyer said the transfer was made for medical reasons.
Bordt is accused of drowning her grandson, Camden Hiers, of Roswell, Georgia, while she and her husband, Heinz Bordt, were vacationing on St. George Island at 641 East Gorrie Drive. She then claimed to her husband to have tried to drown herself in the Gulf of Mexico just before he returned home from an errand in Apalachicola, and discovered the body.
The case has been extensively reported around the globe, and was the topic of a talk show on CNN.
Hankinson has granted a motion to allow a transcript to be provided to Suber of the grand jury proceeding. In addition, the attorney is seeking the right to voir dire, or question, the jury at the grand jury proceeding.
Suber said she is seeking the right to interpose any challenges to the jurors due to the extensive publicity of the alleged crime. “(To consider) that their minds will be tainted,” she said. “There has been publicity all the way to Germany.”
A hearing has been scheduled before Hankinson on Monday, Feb. 8 at 1:30 p.m., with an arraignment slated for Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 10:30 a.m. Both are in the main courthouse in Apalachicola.
