A mother indicted on a murder charge in the 2019 death of her young child doesn’t deny she destroyed his remains, but didn’t “knowingly and purposefully” cause his death, according to a new court filing.
Those statements are made in a motion filed by the attorney for Nakira M. Griner, 26, of Bridgeton, who is charged in the death of 23-month-old Daniel Griner Jr. in February 2019.
In the motion filed this week, Attorney Jill Cohen argues “the evidence necessary for the state to prove murder is separate and apart from the evidence necessary to prove the destruction of the remains. … For the purposes of this motion, defendant does not deny that she destroyed the human remains but denies that she knowingly and purposefully caused the death of D.G. Jr.”
Presenting evidence on the desecration and tampering charges, including images of the remains and details from the autopsy and forensic reports, along with the murder charge would prejudice a jury that will see no proof of how the child actually died or when, Cohen said in a phone interview.
“Once they see what she did as a mother, they’re not going to be able to separate all those prejudicial pieces of evidence from the real issue. Did she murder her child? … When they see the photos of the remains, it’s going to look so horrible that they may be so prejudiced against her that they won’t be able to see that there’s really no definitive cause of death,” Cohen said.
“They have evidence that clearly indicates from circumstantial evidence and the evidence they found that she was the person that destroyed the remains. But if you try the counts together, the jury is going to be so prejudiced against her that they can’t see that the state hasn’t proven a manner of death or at whose hands the death was.”
The new defense motion will be considered during a Feb. 25 hearing.
A judge ruled last year that a series of statements Griner made to police cannot be introduced as evidence in her trial because she wasn’t properly advised of her constitutional rights against self-incrimination.
During those interviews, which were played in court as part of suppression motion hearings, Griner described Daniel falling down the flight of stairs. She was carrying both of her kids, one in each arm, when Daniel reached for something he’d just dropped, she said. He slipped out of her grasp and fell down the stairs.
“He’s bleeding and he’s bruised and he’s just laying there,” she sobs in the recording. “He’s breathing, he’s OK, but there was blood and bruises on his face and chest.”
Griner said she invented the abduction tale because of prior injuries.
“I came up with the elaborate story because Daniel had bruises on him prior to the fall … from being smacked because he wasn’t eating his food and he was telling me what he would and wouldn’t do,” she says.
Griner was indicted in 2019 on five counts in all, including endangering the welfare of a child and false public alarm.
She has remained jailed since her arrest in 2019.