A woman held for 3 1/2 years awaiting trial for allegedly killing, burning and dismembering her 23-month-old son must be freed under state regulations dictating how long a defendant can remain jailed before trial, her attorney argued this week.
Nakira M. Griner, 28, of Bridgeton, was arrested in February 2019 on charges she killed Daniel Griner Jr., disposed of his remains, then claimed the toddler had been abducted.
On the evening of Feb. 8, the mother of two reported she was walking to a store in downtown Bridgeton with Daniel in a stroller and her infant son strapped to her chest, when she was assaulted by someone and knocked to the ground. She said she looked up to see that Daniel and the stroller were gone and placed a series of frantic calls to 911.
Hours later, under continued questioning from police, Griner changed her story, investigators said. She allegedly told investigators the boy accidentally fell down a flight of stairs in the family home and she left the injured child alone and alive in a stroller on the street in hopes that someone would find and help him. Griner told police she left her son because she feared being blamed for Daniel’s injuries.
Police found the boy’s burned and dismembered remains in a handbag and trash bags under a shed outside the family’s house in the early hours of Feb. 9.
Griner was jailed on first-degree murder and other charges and has remained behind bars ever since.
Her trial was slated to begin in August, but that date has now been pushed to Sept. 12. During a hearing on Monday, attorneys for the defense and prosecution traded claims of who was responsible for the delays in bringing the case to trial.
Under criminal justice reform measures put into place in New Jersey in 2017, defendants cannot be detained longer than 180 days from the time they are indicted until their case goes to trial. Overall, they cannot be jailed longer than two years from the time of their detention until the start of trial.
Exceptions are factored in for any delays attributable to the defense and unusual circumstances, such as the coronavirus pandemic, which resulted in the state suspending criminal jury trials from March 2020 through June of last year.
Factoring all of this in, Griner should have been released April 27 of this year, defense attorney Jill Cohen stated in an Aug. 8 filing seeking her pre-trial release. Cohen argued Griner was ready for her trial to begin in August, as scheduled, and the delay in the start of the trial should trigger her release.
Cohen attributed the delay to a scheduling conflict for Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Parvin, who is currently handling another murder trial involving a child victim.
The prosecutor’s scheduling conflict isn’t her client’s fault, Cohen said during a hearing on Monday. Griner expected her trial to begin in August and has been in jail far longer than the two-year maximum allowed in the law, according to her attorney.
“She’s been in much more than the 2 years obviously … 3 1/2 years,” Cohen said. “My reading of the statute is that she gets released.”
Parvin challenged Cohen, telling Superior Court Judge George H. Gangloff she was ready to proceed for months and that she had previously alerted all parties that she had the other case coming up.
“I was ready in July and the defense was not ready,” Parvin said. “If Ms. Griner wanted her trial date, she could have had it in July. It was out of, I would say, courtesy from the court that it was pushed to mid-to-end of August because of a vacation that was scheduled by the defense attorney.”
Parvin said the court was aware the two child homicide trials could conflict.
“I gave the court the heads up that this could cause delay because I have a trial scheduled for early August. Another homicide. And the court at the time indicated on the record that they would determine which one would take priority based on age and that’s the one that would start,” Parvin said.
“And that’s what happened.”
The other case is the trial of two men charged in the 2018 stray bullet shooting death of a Bridgeton girl sleeping in her bed.
Jury selection is underway in that case and testimony could begin Sept. 20, Parvin said. That trial could wrap up in two weeks, so the earliest she could start the Griner trial is October, she added.
The two sides disagreed in court over who forced the delay of the trial in July.
Parvin also indicated there were still 45 days of delays between April and June of this year that had yet to be factored into the equation in determining when Griner is eligible for release.
In her motion, Cohen argued that Griner could be released to prepare for her trial and remain under home detention with orders that she have no contact with minor children.
The prosecution plans to file a response to the defense motion for release.
In response to Cohen’s assertion that Griner should be freed, the judge noted that many issues must still be weighed before a defendant is released.
“There are certain things that the court has to take into consideration other than the time,” Gangloff responded. “The time is clearly an issue in any case where it gets to that point.”
Gangloff plans to hear the release motion Sept. 12, stating that he needs to consider the issue before the date when Griner would legally have to be freed. He indicated she could be released later in September, based on the current calculation of her time in jail not attributable to delays in the trial caused by the defense.
The judge also set Griner’s trial date for Sept. 12, drawing concern from Parvin.
“So it’s the court’s intention to start the 12th regardless of my status as being in another trial?” she asked.
“It’s my intention to start the trial on the 12th,” Gangloff answered. “As to who proceeds on the state’s behalf, I don’t know what your office’s intention is on that.”
However, the judge said the trial date may not be set in stone. Parvin noted that she has worked on the Griner case from the beginning.
“Just for the record, because I’ve been on this case for 3 1/2 years and I am in trial on another homicide on another child that was murdered in Bridgeton, and I’m now being told I may not proceed on a case very similar in nature,” she said.
Should the Griner trial go forward in September, Parvin told the judge she would try to juggle both matters.
“If the state is forced to proceed on that date and I am in another trial, I will be requesting that jury selection take place on Mondays and Thursdays so that I can participate in two trials at the same time, if that’s what I’m going to be forced to do,” she said, noting that the other trial will take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Gangloff affirmed that he understood the state’s concerns regarding Parvin’s availability and said he would take all factors into consideration when weighing the matter.
Last year, Griner rejected a plea offer to serve 30 years in prison in return for guilty plea to the murder charge, opting instead to face trial. In addition to first-degree murder, she is charged with disturbing or desecrating human remains, tampering with evidence, endangering the welfare of a child and false public alarm.
Her attorney stated in a previous court filing that her client didn’t deny destroying the child’s remains, but didn’t “knowingly and purposefully” cause his death.
The twin challenges of the pandemic and a shortage of Superior Court judges have complicated the effort to clear a backlog of thousands of cases awaiting trial in New Jersey, putting pressure on judges to get the oldest cases to trial.
In a June state Supreme Court ruling on another murder defendant who was detained in 2019 and challenged his continued detention, the justices unanimously found that his right to a speedy trial was not violated.
In that ruling, however, the court advised trial judges to schedule hearings 30 days before the 2-year mark to verify that the state is prepared to proceed to trial. The ruling also suggested that, in order to address the staffing shortage, judges may need to be reassigned from their normal duties to handle criminal trials.
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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.
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