Jerry Scott Heidler

Parties

• Jerry Scott Heidler (defendant)

Background

Heidler briefly lived with the Daniels family while trying to overcome drug and alcohol problems. He had dated Jessica Daniels. According to Heidler’s mother, Heidler was distraught because his girlfriend had given birth to a stillborn baby two days earlier. He was arrested and charged with the killings.

Heidler was 20 years old. He had undergone open-heart surgery when he was 4 years old. He was placed in two foster homes because of poor supervision by his mother. He had imaginary friends and carried a mouse in his hand. He was afraid of the dark and was afraid a knife would come through the ceiling and cut him. He attended a school in Baxley for children with learning disabilities. He mutilated himself by picking at his skin until he bled.

James Maish, a forensic psychologist, testified that Heidler suffered from a severe case of borderline personality disorder. Maish said Heidler had eight of the nine symptoms, including suicide attempts, outbursts of uncontrolled anger and “frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment.”

Before the killings, Heidler had been involved with the family as a foster child relationship: his sister had been in the Daniels’ care as a foster child for 45 days in 1995, and Heidler began to frequent the house and occasionally stay there overnight. The evidence at trial also described that months before the murders, Danny Daniels noticed Heidler developing a relationship with his 16-year-old daughter, Jessica, and had a conversation with Heidler after which Heidler stopped visiting. The surviving children later identified Heidler as the person who kidnapped them.

The offence

On December 3, 1997, after midnight, Danny Daniels and Kim Daniels were shot to death while they slept. Also killed were Jessica Daniels, 16, and Bryant Daniels, 8.

The intruder then took three other children from the home:

• two 10 and 8-year-old daughters of the couple (including the 10-year-old foster daughter),
• a 9-year-old foster child (a girl), and left alive a 10-month-old boy and a 5-year-old boy (brother of the 9-year-old foster girl) at the blood-splattered home.

The kidnapped children were later found alive by a farmer along a country road about 30 miles away. The children said Heidler had kidnapped them as he fled the murder scene. The girls were dropped off on the side of a road in Bacon County, two counties to the south; authorities were alerted after the farmer found them and called authorities.

The surviving girls told police that the oldest girl had been raped and sodomized. Investigators also learned Heidler was charged with molesting one of the surviving girls miles away.

Heidler was described as having entered the Daniels home through a bathroom window using a ladder and as having stolen a shotgun from a gun cabinet in Kim and Danny’s bedroom. He then committed the murders once inside. After dropping the girls off in Bacon County, Heidler went to his mother’s house where he slept and played video games.

Heidler also gave an account of later events to police: he said he drove to the Altamaha River bridge between Appling and Bacon counties, took the 10-year-old to a boat ramp, and sexually assaulted her out of sight of the others in the van. After the rape, the sobbing little victim asked him to get rid of the gun because he was scaring them; he said he tossed it in the Altamaha River where it would never be found. He then abandoned the girls and drove back to his mother’s house.

Investigation

Neighbors and police responded after a farmer and his wife were awakened when their dog wouldn’t stop barking. Around four o’clock in the morning, police arrived at Carter Pond House Road in Bacon County after seeing three children walking in nightgowns. The three children said they had been taken earlier that morning from their Santa Claus home.

Investigators sealed off the area at the Daniels house. Homicide officers arrived with a medical examiner, a crime scene technician, and a deputy district attorney. Each victim had been shot through the head in an execution-style manner. Danny Daniels appeared to have been shot in the back of the head. Kim Daniels had been shot in the face, resulting in severe disfigurement. Bryant Daniels had been shot point-blank through the head while sleeping, clinging to his teddy bear. The female victim in the hallway had her face almost entirely removed.

Crime scene work included:

• finding 1100 Remington shotgun shells on the floor of each bedroom,
• finding tissue fragments adhering to cartridges lying on the bed beside Danny and Kim,
• photographing the scene in both color and black and white and videotaping it,
• collecting blood and other bodily fluids samples, marking them according to source and location,
• vacuuming for trace evidence of hair and clothing fiber using divided filter bags for each location,
• searching for identifiable latent fingerprints.

Crime scene evidence also included trial findings regarding the shotgun and forensic identification:

• A Remington 1100 semi-automatic shotgun was missing from Mr. Daniels’ gun cabinet, the door to which was open.
• Seven spent shotgun casings were found throughout the house.
• A firearms expert testified that the Remington 1100 shotgun holds six shotgun shells, so the shooter must have reloaded at least once.
• A neighbor heard noises at 1:45 a.m. that could have been shots.
• The assailant entered the house by using a ladder to climb through a bathroom window.
• A fingerprint lifted from this window matched Heidler’s fingerprint.
• DNA taken from saliva on a cigarette butt found on the floor in the house matched Heidler’s DNA.

The police were initially questioned as to the killer’s identity, and later investigators used information obtained from the surviving children to identify Heidler.

Arrest

Heidler was arrested at approximately 2:00 p.m. on the day the crimes were committed. His interrogation began about 90 minutes later.

He was found hiding under his mother’s house in Alma. A manhunt was conducted, with Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents dispatched to Alma. Heidler was described as walking out the front door as police arrived, making eye contact, then running back into the house. Agents returned to prevent escape, and Heidler was found huddled in a crawl space beneath the home. Officers dragged him out after he refused to come out and arrested him on an outstanding warrant of probation violation.

Heidler’s brother was arrested for obstructing justice and lodged without bail in Bacon County Jail along with his brother.

Confession and statements

During interrogation, police read Heidler his rights and reviewed a waiver-of-rights form with him before he signed it. The interview lasted about two hours and culminated in a videotaped confession.

The trial court found Heidler was lucid, not intoxicated, and appeared to understand his rights. He was not handcuffed, and was provided with cigarettes and a soft drink. He was neither coerced, threatened, nor promised anything in exchange for his statement. He did not request a lawyer or ask that the questioning cease.

Heidler repeatedly said he was unsure because it was like “a dream.” One of the interrogating officers volunteered to “get in the dream with him.” Heidler claimed this was coercive, but the court found it was simply an attempt to prod his memory.

Heidler told officers: “I killed them all.”

After arrest, the evidence also described statements by Heidler:

• He told the police that he threw the shotgun into a river, and the kidnapped girls confirmed this assertion.
• He asked his brother if he had ever killed anyone, and his brother said no; Heidler then said that killing “gives you a rush, makes you want to go out and kill more people.”
• Sweat testified that Heidler laughed or cried at times, and was relatively unaffected by what he had done, with him being indifferent to the gravity of what he had done.
• The trial court also described derogatory comments about the victims and remorseless comments about the murders, including a boast that he was a “collector of souls” who was not through with his collection.

Charges and convictions (guilt phase)

Heidler was charged and convicted of:

• Four counts of malice murder
• Kidnapping with bodily injury
• Two counts of kidnapping
• Aggravated sodomy
• Aggravated child molestation
• Child molestation
• Burglary

The jury recommended four death sentences for the murders, finding as statutory aggravating circumstances that:

• each homicide was perpetrated during Heidler’s commission of the other three, and
• all four deaths occurred during Heidler’s commission of a burglary. OCGA 17-10-30 (b) (2).

In a post-trial disposition on one count, the appellate court reversed the conviction and sentence for the crime charged in count 9 of the indictment, concluding the aggravated child molestation conviction merged into the aggravated sodomy conviction as a matter of fact under the facts of the case.

Trial

Heidler sought to present evidence on mental health issues. The defense filed for a change of venue, and the venue was changed from Toombs County to Walton County because of statewide media attention.

Jury selection began on August 27. The trial opened before a jury of seven men and five women on August 30, 1999 in Judge Walter McMillan’s Walton County Courthouse. The jury convicted Heidler on Friday, September 3, 1999.

The trial court denied Heidler’s motion to suppress his statement on voluntariness grounds. The court also addressed multiple trial objections and instructions, including:

• admission of pre-autopsy photographs,
• admission of videotapes of police interviews with two of the kidnapped girls (with waiver of a Confrontation Clause objection),
• admission of testimony concerning the van Heidler stole before the murders,
• allowing mental health expert testimony despite requested mental illness defenses,
• jury qualification issues during death penalty qualification and voir dire responses,
• various jury instruction challenges regarding sentencing options.

Jury selection issues (voir dire)

• The death penalty qualification of prospective jurors during the guilt-innocence phase of a capital case was held not to be unconstitutional.
• The appellate discussion addressed specific prospective jurors, including Ms. Still, Ms. Malcom, and others including those excused for cause.

Evidence regarding sexual assault and identification

Trial evidence included videotaped interviews of the two kidnapped girls. The ten-year-old sexual assault victim and the eight-year-old who witnessed the attack did not testify at trial. The videotaped interviews were found admissible under the child hearsay statute with sufficient indicia of reliability.

From a photographic lineup, each of the three girls separately identified Heidler as the kidnapper.

Sentencing

On September 4, 1999, Heidler was sentenced to death for the murders of four members of the Daniels family.

In addition to the four death sentences, the trial court imposed:

• life imprisonment for kidnapping with bodily injury,
• 20 years for each kidnapping,
• life imprisonment for aggravated sodomy,
• 30 years for aggravated child molestation,
• 20 years for child molestation,
• 20 years for burglary, with all sentences to be served consecutively.

The appellate court set aside three murders as statutory aggravating circumstances as to Heidler’s murder of Mr. Daniels based on the principle of mutually supporting aggravating circumstances, while maintaining that all four death sentences were still based on commission of a burglary as an additional independent valid statutory aggravating circumstance.

Appeals

Heidler appealed to challenge:

• denial of suppression of his statement,
• alleged Brady violation regarding DFCS records,
• jury selection issues related to death penalty qualification,
• venue change issues,
• various evidentiary and instructional rulings,
• and sentencing-phase issues including the jury’s handling of statutory aggravating circumstances.

The appellate court:

• found no Brady violation because DFCS records were made available to the defense and were also provided directly by subpoena,
• addressed juror qualification under established standards,
• concluded that the erroneous recharge regarding guilty but mentally retarded did not harm Heidler because experts testified Heidler was not mentally retarded and defense conceded that point,
• merged the aggravated child molestation conviction into the aggravated sodomy conviction as a matter of fact and reversed the conviction and sentence for count 9,
• and upheld Georgia’s statutory death penalty scheme and the Unified Appeal Procedure, rejecting constitutional challenges.

A “Motion to Bar Execution by Electrocution” was filed. The appellate court concluded the trial court did not err in holding no evidentiary hearing because Heidler was permitted to proffer over 400 pages of documents, and also held execution by electrocution was not unconstitutional.

Heidler’s case was decided October 2, 2000, with reconsideration denied October 26, 2000.

Other details

Escape while awaiting trial

On July 6, 1999, while awaiting trial, Heidler escaped with tracking dogs and helicopters on his heels. News flashes warned anyone who crossed paths with the escaped convict was in extreme danger. Jailers searching his cell found 75 homemade weapons he had made from unscrewing wire cages and smoke and fire alarms. He was quickly captured and returned for trial.

Funeral

Funeral services for the slain family were held on Tuesday, December 9, 1997 at First United Methodist Church of Lyons after the bodies were released for burial by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab in Atlanta. Danny Daniels was in a casket at the far left of the church. Kim Daniels was in a white casket adorned with white and pink carnations. A third casket held Jessica. The tiniest casket at the far end held Bryant. The Rev. Ray Wood spoke about Bryant and referenced that the family invited him to their church and that he had lived with them briefly in their home.

Heidler’s mental health testimony

A witness testified that at age 11, Heidler carried a mouse and had imaginary friends. Another teacher testified that he mutilated himself by picking at his skin until he bled. A forensic psychologist testified regarding borderline personality disorder.

Birth defect and stillborn baby references in the case narrative

The narrative included that Heidler’s girlfriend had given birth to a stillborn baby two days earlier. Heidler described his accounts of December 3 and 4 as involving attending the funeral of a stillborn baby he had fathered to a woman he never saw before.

Trial-related procedural outcomes and dates (as stated)

• The crimes were committed on December 4, 1997.
• The Toombs County grand jury indicted Heidler on March 10, 1998.
• The State filed notice of intent to seek the death penalty on April 2, 1998.
• The trial was held in Walton County from August 23 to September 3, 1999.
• The jury convicted Heidler on all counts on September 2, 1999, and recommended the four death sentences the following day.
• Heidler filed a motion for new trial on September 20, 1999, amended on November 30, 1999, and it was denied on December 29, 1999.
• The case was docketed in this Court on February 3, 2000 and was orally argued on May 8, 2000.

Legal citations and judicial authorship within the appellate decision

• The appellate opinion referenced HEIDLER v. THE STATE. (273 Ga. 54) (537 SE2d 44) (2000) CARLEY, Justice.
• It also included a concurrence and dissent by SEARS, Justice, and stated that Chief Justice Benham joined in a partial concurrence and partial dissent regarding execution by electrocution.