DNA testing still unresolved in Montgomery Countys death row case against Larry Swearingen

Prosecutors are pessimistic about the likelihood that a state district court judge in Montgomery County will ever agree to set an execution date for Larry Ray Swearingen.

Swearingen was convicted in July 2000 of the capital murder of community college student Melissa Trotter.

His appellate attorney is still hopeful that exculpatory evidence from DNA testing will show that Swearingen could not have been the killer because he was serving time in the Montgomery County Jail for unrelated warrants when Trotter was believed to have been kidnapped and killed.

There have been six motions filed by Swearingen seeking additional DNA testing, all of which have been appealed by the Montgomery County District Attorneys Office.

Both sides have filed briefs with the Court of Criminal Appeals and are waiting to learn whether the higher court will hear oral arguments before issuing a ruling, Assistant District Attorney Bill Delmore said.

The CCA affirmed former 9th state District Court Judge Fred Edwards denial of Swearingens fourth motion for DNA testing in 2010 on grounds that he can never satisfy the requirement that exculpatory results of testing would cause a different outcome in light of the mountain of inculpatory evidence of his guilt, including the discovery at Swearingens residence of the remaining half of the pantyhose used to strangle Trotter.

However, 9th state District Court Judge Kelly Case, who defeated Edwards in 2012 (Edwards passed away in 2014), granted Swearingens fifth motion for DNA testing, and the CCA reversed that order in February. Less than six months later, Case again granted the same renewed request for testing, plus additional testing sought in a supplemental sixth motion.

We are pessimistic about the likelihood that Judge Case will ever agree to set an execution date, and I have warned the Trotter family that we cannot expect the case to move forward during Judge Cases current term of office, Delmore wrote in an email to The Courier. But we have gotten past every dilatory obstacle raised by Swearingens attorneys in the past, and we remain confident that we will get this case back on track and obtain a just result for Melissa Trotter and her family.

Sixteen years after Melissa Trotters body was found in the national forest, her family has no doubt that Swearingen is responsible for the murder, according to her parents, Charles and Sandy Trotter.

Both parents, during a phone conversation with The Courier Dec. 29, expressed frustration at Cases decision to stall Swearingens execution date by allowing for additional DNA testing. They believe the actions of Swearingens appellate attorney and Case are in blatant defiance of what a jury decided nearly 15 years ago.

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DNA testing still unresolved in Montgomery Countys death row case against Larry Swearingen