An Odessa woman accused of killing twin 6-year-olds in an alcohol-related crash three years ago is waiting on a decision if she will be tried in Ector County after Judge Denn Whalen of the 70th District Court on Thursday said he is taking a defense motion to move her trial out of the county under consideration.
Defense attorney Michael McLeaish argued before a packed courtroom there is no way Angelica Garcia can get a fair and impartial trial in Ector County given the amount of news coverage she’s received since her arrest in July 2019 in the deaths of Mia and Mya Coy and the reactions to it on social media.
Not only has the news coverage been pervasive, but its been incredibly damaging to his client, McLeaish said. Every time an article is printed or a story shown on the news, it includes photos and videos of the “darling little twins” juxtaposed with a mugshot of his client. In addition, only a few of the articles and TV reports refer to his client as an “alleged” drunk driver, instead referring to her as though she’s already been convicted, he said.
After a recent story by the Odessa American, McLeaish said someone on Facebook posted “She only wants to transfer the case because she wants an impartial jury. Why should she get one?”
As his client sat with her head down, McLeaish also complained that every article repeats details from an Odessa Police Department arrest affidavit, details he disputes and remain unproven.
He also pointed out there is precedent for a change of venue in Ector County. In 1997, the trials of Melanie Green and Josh Humphries were moved to Sweetwater. The teenagers were accused of killing Green’s grandmother, Rachel Juanita Green, 60. Melanie Green was acquitted and Humphries is serving a life sentence.
Assistant Ector County Attorney Melissa Williams said the law maintains that “accurate news” and information that is going to be presented at trial is not prejudicial or inflammatory. In fact, she recalled a case in which video surveillance of a murder was shown repeatedly on TV and the defendant’s murder trial was not moved.
In looking at 12 Odessa American articles, Williams said half of them were published the same month the girls were killed and while police were looking for witnesses who may have seen Garcia in a bar prior to the event. She also noted the word “reportedly” was consistently used when discussing Garcia’s state the night of the incident.
Williams suggested that if the judge wasn’t going to rule immediately, he might consider ruling after jury selection has begun just to see if any issues arise.
In his motion filed last month, McLeaish said the media’s coverage has many times included “false, and actually salacious statements about” her condition at the time of the wreck.
The media has reported Garcia was so intoxicated she urinated on herself, when, in fact, she lost control because she was “terrified,” McLeaish said.
The defense attorney said that despite the stories, Garcia did not slur her words because she was intoxicated, but rather because her mouth suffered an injury that required stitches.
In addition, Garcia’s eyes were blood shot because she’d been crying, he wrote.
McLeaish also attributes the accident, not to Garcia being intoxicated, but to suddenly being confronted with a fireworks stand in the middle of what she thought was a road.
In his filed response to McLeaish’s motion, Assistant Ector County District Attorney Michael Bloch wrote:
“Her claims of falsity are nothing more than baseless explanations of her behavior that have no bearing on whether information has permeated the community that is pervasive, prejudicial and inflammatory.”
In addition, Bloch wrote that the information in the news stories came from law enforcement reports and McLeaish provided no arguments or legal basis to show the information “was false or should be characterized as inflammatory.”
Moreover, Bloch pointed out McLeaish provided the judge no statistics in terms of the media outlets’ viewership or readership.
As far as a change.org petition that has garnered more than 23,000 signatures demanding “Justice for Mia and Mya,” Bloch said there’s no evidence those who signed it are Ector County residents.
Garcia, 38, was indicted on two counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in connection with the crash.
According to authorities, Garcia was driving a Chrysler 200 east on the north service road of East Highway 80 near Club Drive when she went through a barricade and struck the 6-year-old twins, who were standing near a fireworks stand.
The children were pronounced dead at Medical Center Hospital.
Police said Garcia admitted she’d been drinking at a lounge and showed signs of intoxication.
