MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (WBTW) – There’s still a lot of ground to cover before this case can go to trial. Sidney’s attorney Kirk Truslow has an extensive list of evidence he wants kept out of the courtroom and much of that list was not covered at Monday’s pretrial hearing.
The judge will still have to rule on a number of things including: showing pictures of the Moorers posing with guns on family vacation, and communication from Tammy Moorer to Heather Elvis and her family. Sidney’s attorney also wants the kidnapping and obstruction of justice charge to be tried separately, and wants the state banned from using some testimony from Bree Warrelman, a friend of Heather’s who spoke to her before she disappeared.
What was covered during Monday’s hearing was whether the state could use their expert witness or not. Grant Fredericks, a forensic video specialist says he used reverse projection and video comparison along with comparing headlight patterns. He said he can confidently prove that the Moorer’s vehicle was the one seen on surveillance video.
When questioned about his expertise, Fredericks said he’s been more than through.
“Generally is that we compare to what we refer to as a known vehicle, the vehicle that the police would have in their custody, they want to compare and contrast that to the questioned vehicle, the vehicle during the incident. Generally I ask for two vehicles of the same class, make, model year and color to do the comparisons. In this particular case because of the nature of some of the images, I asked for about a dozen vehicles of different makes and models that yet appeared very very similar.”
The judge absolutely sided with prosecutor Nancy Livesay saying that the average person would not know anything about headlight patterns and that Fredericks’ testimony would be helpful to a jury. It will be allowed during the trial.
Since that testimony took so long, judge Dennis requested attorneys from both sides review their schedules for another hearing to consider the other motions filed on Sidney Moorer’s behalf. The judge wants all pretrial matters resolved by June 17th. Jury selection would begin June 20th. The trial will continue, if necessary, on June 27th.
We’ve covered this from the start of Elvis’ disappearance and we’ll continue to keep you covered News13 and on wbtw.com.
