Judge sets hearing to decide if Megan Boswell’s trial will be in Sullivan County

SULLIVAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – Megan Boswell, the Sullivan County woman accused of killing her 15-month-old daughter Evelyn, appeared in court Thursday.

Boswell and her attorney Gene Scott appeared before Judge James “Jim” Goodwin, along with First Judicial District Attorney General Barry Staubus. Boswell faces a slew of charges tied to her daughter’s death, including two counts of felony murder.

Boswell was in court for a motions hearing, one of which was a motion to sever some of her charges and try them separately from her murder charges.

Judge Goodwin denied that motion. You can watch the entire court appearance below.

Among the motions discussed was a change of venue filed by Boswell’s former attorney Brad Sproles. Scott was appointed as Boswell’s attorney in October 2022 after Sproles filed a motion to withdraw citing a deteriorating relationship between himself and Boswell.

“I’ve been over most everything in the case at this point,” Scott said in court. “I feel like that’s where we need to start. That needs to be addressed and determined if we’re going to try the case here or what’s going to happen.”

Goodwin said a change of venue would entail handing the case over to another county’s court to handle and preside over. Instead, Scott told News Channel 11 he would prefer a change of venire, which would bring in a pool of jurors from another jurisdiction, but the trial would remain in Sullivan County.

Scott said his only concern is making sure Boswell receives a fair trial, which could prove difficult in Sullivan County due to the notoriety of her case.

“There’s been a lot of chatter. You can read the Facebook comments,” Scott told News Channel 11 after the hearing. “And you can see there’s been lots of people who know very little about the case, who have been quick to condemn her. She must be guilty. And we want to make sure that we get people that [do] not have a formal opinion of the case, will have an open mind.”

Staubus disagreed when asked about the potential for a fair jury selected locally.

“We believe we can get a local jury here from Sullivan County, but we’ll find out and time will tell,” Staubus said.

Goodwin set a hearing for June 20 to rule on the motion to change of venue or venire.

Scott also brought up the process of creating jury questionnaires for the trial, which Goodwin told him was already underway.

“The judge has previously given out a jury questionnaire for jurors to just to get an idea of their knowledge about the case and rest,” Staubus said. “So that will probably be explored at the next motion hearing that I anticipate.”

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