Illegal immigrant complicates Marcia Trimble case
Prosecution fears he'll be deported before trial
By Nicole Young • THE TENNESSEAN • March 31, 2009

Prosecutors in the Marcia Trimble murder case asked a judge not to rule yet on a motion they filed that would allow an emergency videotaped deposition of a jailhouse witness facing deportation.



During a hearing Monday in Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier's courtroom, Davidson County Deputy District Attorney Tom Thurman said the witness, Sheldon Anter, was not being cooperative with the state and refused to appear in court because the news media was present.

Thurman filed the motion requesting the emergency deposition last week. At the time, he said he did not know Anter, who is in the country illegally from Trinidad, would be facing deportation so soon. Anter has been transferred to federal custody, but remains in Nashville.

Anter could be material witness
An 18-month sentence Anter was serving for a fraud conviction has been converted to probation, and he could be deported before the Trimble case goes to trial on July 13. He has been in the Metro Jail since last year.

Although the motion requesting the deposition has not been withdrawn, Thurman said he is now considering whether to hold Anter as a material witness.

"Generally, if an attorney files a (material witness) bond, the judge will hold a hearing to determine if the person named in it is a material witness," said Susan Niland, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. "If the person is a material witness, then the judge will set a bond, and that person is held in custody until the court date unless the bond is paid."

If the witness paid the bond, he would be released, Niland said. Anter has said he does not want to return to Trinidad.

The district attorney's office wants to use Anter's testimony in the first-degree murder trial of Jerome Barrett, who was indicted last year in the 1975 murder of 9-year-old Trimble.

The girl was found dead on Easter Sunday in a Green Hills garage not far from her home. She disappeared while delivering Girl Scout cookies in her neighborhood.

Anter told police he heard Barrett make statements about killing people while he was housed near Barrett at a Metro detention facility last year.





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