Judge wants decision on death for Bordt

A Franklin County judge is urging prosecutors of the German grandmother accused of murdering her grandson in the bathtub of a St. George Island resort vacation home to move quickly on whether they plan to seek the death penalty.

In his ruling Tuesday afternoon on a defense motion regarding shielding evidence from public scrutiny, Circuit Judge James Hankinson encouraged the state “to decide as soon as possible” regarding whether to pursue the death penalty against Marianne Bordt, 71.

“It saves everybody time and energy and the taxpayers a good deal of money,” said Hankinson.

Assistant State Attorney Robin Myers, who is prosecuting the case on behalf of Willie Meggs, state attorney for the 2nd Judicial Circuit, said a decision on the death penalty “is in the process of being worked out.”

On Feb. 25, a 21-person grand jury indicted Bordt on charges of first-degree murder, which can carry the death penalty, and aggravated child abuse in connection with the drowning death of her 5-year-old grandson, Camden Hiers, on St. George Island on Jan. 4.

Bordt’s husband, Heinz, was flown in from Germany by prosecutors to testify against his wife. Also appearing before the grand jury was Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Tom McGraw.

In the charge of aggravated child abuse, a first-degree felony, the prosecution left open the manner in which Bordt allegedly harmed the grandson. The count asserts that Bordt committed a battery on the boy “by cutting with a knife, or did torture or maliciously punish a child by drowning.”

Marianne Bordt’s defense attorney, Maria Ines Suber, with the public defender’s office, has submitted a written plea of not guilty to the new charges.

She said following Tuesday’s hearing she did not believe the case calls for the death penalty, which she said is reserved “for the most egregious of circumstances.” At the hearing she pressed for a decision on whether they prosecution would pursue the death penalty, which would call for her to prepare for the penalty phase of the deliberations throughout the trial.

“Obviously, the murder of a child is very serious, but that doesn’t mean every murder of a child means the state has to put the person to death,” said Suber. “I don’t think in this case it’s pressing, but the state could request it even with one aggravator.”

The defense attorney refused to say whether she planned to lodge an insanity defense. “It’s hard to say what the defense is before you have the whole discovery,” she said.

Suber said death penalty specifications would add further to the cost of the trial, which she said would likely involve several trips to Germany to investigate Bordt’s background.

On Tuesday, Hankinson declined to shield further evidence from the media, as Suber had sought in a broad motion that indicated she intends to try to keep evidence of an alleged “confession” from Bordt out of the public eye.

According to the sheriff’s office’s probable cause affidavit, Heinz Bordt, who was on a shopping trip to Apalachicola when the alleged murder took place, told investigators his wife told him she killed the boy because she didn’t want him growing up in a divorced home. Hiers was the son of Karin and David Hiers, who live separately in suburban Atlanta and who shared custody of the boy ever since divorcing in 2006.

Hankinson asked the attorneys at Tuesday’s hearing, who also included Michael Glazer, arguing on behalf of the Tallahassee Democrat, about the legal precedents regarding the “substance of a confession,” which is a type of discovery, like an autopsy report, that is not protected by the public records law.

Hankinson asked whether the exemption from the Sunshine Law related just to custodial interrogation, when a defendant is in police custody, or to any manner of incriminating statement made to others by a defendant.

The judge said he would leave it to prosecutors to decide what evidence in discovery related to the “substance of a confession,” and that if a matter arises calling for guidance from the court, he would review the matter behind closed doors. The parties could then decide whether to seek a public hearing, the judge said.

Hankinson set the next case management hearing for May 11 at 1:30 p.m.