WESTON, W.Va. — The post-trial motions hearing in the case of Lena Lunsford, scheduled for Monday, has been delayed.
Defense attorney Tom Dyer said the delay will be so he can add an additional motion, but said he “could not comment” to the nature of the additional motion.
“We need to do a little additional investigation into the developing of a few of the facts that would support these motions,” he said in a phone call with WAJR Friday afternoon. “It may lead to a hearing where we have additional testimony, which wasn’t heard during the trials.”
Monday’s scheduled hearing was originally supposed to cover Dyer’s motion for acquittal notwithstanding of the trial’s verdict.
“It’ll be something that is a little unusual,” he said. “It’ll certainly be newsworthy if this thing moves forward, which it looks like it will.”
Beyond that, Dyer is now expecting Lunsford, who was convicted last month on four felony charges in the 2011 disappearance and presumed death of her three-year-old daughter Aliayah Lunsford, to eventually have her case heard by the State Supreme Court.
“It’s going to have to wind up there,” Dyer said. “It is inevitable. I mean, when the worst thing happens to you that could happen to you within the system, your lawyers are absolutely, professionally duty-bound to take it to the next level.”
“This thing is going to the Supreme Court,” he added.
Dyer said the defense’s position is that the jury didn’t properly understand or “fairly and objectively” apply the law to the facts of the case.
“That’s how we wound up with the verdict that we did,” Dyer said.
“We had no evidence sufficient to convict in this case of the cause of death being the neglect or abuse by the defendant.”
Although testimony by two underage witnesses during the trial revealed that Aliayah Lunsford’s remains were believed to have been buried in the unincorporated area of Vadis in Lewis County, Dyer said there was no way to prove the Prosecution’s theory without a body.
“You don’t see prosecutorial agencies across the country moving forward in cases with no body, because if you can’t prove cause of death you can not sustain a verdict,” he said. “And that’s what is going on here.”
Dyer also expressed concern over a doctor at Ruby Memorial Hospital who did not testify during the trial, suggesting the doctor would not have provided back-up to the prosecution’s case.
“The only inference that can be drawn from that is that he’s got nothing to say that can support the state’s theory as the cause of death,” Dyer said.
The delay is expected to last for at least a week.