One of four defendants charged in connection to last year’s murder of a Mountain City, Georgia, woman is a step closer to trial.
On Monday, Macon County, North Carolina, Assistant District Attorney Jim Moore and defense attorney Jim Parker agreed to a continuance of the case against Lenoka Wilson. Still, the court placed the Otto, North Carolina, woman on the trial calendar for Feb. 12, 2024, which is the next step to getting her case before a jury.
“Basically, Ms. Wilson has rejected any plea offer and intends to plead not guilty; therefore, she will go on a trial calendar,” explained Macon County Assistant Clerk of Superior Court Lauren Messer.
Parker says he doesn’t expect any of the defendants in the Tina Frizsell murder case to go on trial until the end of next year or early 2025. Wilson is charged with two counts of kidnapping in connection to the May 2022 murder. Her attorney says he’s pored over thousands of pages of discovery and maintains his client’s innocence.
“I am not happy with the State’s case. At this point, we will not accept a plea agreement,” Parker told Now Habersham.
Other defendants’ admin hearings pushed to January
The court continued administrative hearings for Jessica Smith, Andrew “Dereck” McCrackin, and Christopher Shields. They’re now set to appear in court on January 10, 2024.
Attorneys for Smith and Shields had conflicts this week. McCrackin’s attorney, Ward Collins, spoke with Assistant District Attorney John Hindsman and agreed to a continuance.
After Tuesday’s hearing, Ward told Now Habersham some elements of McCrackin’s case are “complex.” However, he is confident in his “offense and defense” strategy for his client.
McCrackin and Smith are both charged with concealing a death, destroying a body, felony conspiracy to commit murder, and as accessories after the fact.
Shields is the only one of the four defendants charged with murder. In September, Judge William Coward granted Macon County District Attorney Ashley Welch’s request to transfer Shields’ felony murder charge to a capital murder charge. That change allows prosecutors to pursue the death penalty.
Shields is currently housed at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. Neither he nor McCrackin appeared in court this week.
Attorneys Parker and Collins say the case against Shields will weigh heavily on the outcomes of their clients’ cases when they finally do go to trial.
Prosecutors claim Shields shot Frizsell to death in a shed on his property in Otto, North Carolina. They allege that Wilson held Frizsell and Angie Ledford, another woman from Rabun County, against their will in the shed while Shields left the property prior to the murder. After the murder, Smith and McCrackin helped move her body to another location and burn it.
Ledford was later found dead. DA Welch says she was decapitated.
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