Court cases are proceeding slowly against four defendants charged in connection to the murder of a Mountain City, Georgia, woman.
Chris Shields, Jessica Smith, Andrew McCrackin, and Lenore Wilson were all scheduled to appear in Macon County Superior Court in Franklin, North Carolina, this week. However, two of the defendants have been granted continuances until June.
All four are charged in relation to the May 2022 shooting death of Tina Walkingstick Friszell.
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An administrative hearing was scheduled Monday, March 24, for Chris Shields. However, he and his attorney were not in court. According to sources close to the case, Shields could not be transported to court due to security protocols at Central Prison in Raleigh.
His case was continued. Another administrative hearing is scheduled for him in June of this year.
Shields could face the death penalty once the case goes to trial. In addition to capital murder, authorities charged him with destroying human remains, felony conspiracy to commit murder, concealing a death, and possession of a firearm by a felon.
According to prosecutors, Shields shot Frizsell to death in a shed at his residence on South Tryphosa Road in Otto, North Carolina.
The mother of two was killed the day before her 43rd birthday.
Jessica Smith’s case was continued as well. No reason was given for the continuance. Her next administrative hearing will also be held in June. Smith bonded out of jail in September 2022 after her bond was reduced.
She is charged with concealing a death, destroying a body, felony conspiracy to commit murder, and as accessories after the fact. Smith is accused of helping to move and burn Frizsell’s body to conceal her death.
Andrew McCrackin and Lenore Wilson are both scheduled to have administrative hearings later this week.
SEE ALSO: Ledford killed ahead of murder trial in which she was a witness
Wilson is charged with two counts of first-degree kidnapping. The charges stem from her alleged refusal to allow Frizsell and Angie Ledford to leave the shed where the murder took place when they had an opportunity. Ledford was an eyewitness to the Frizsell murder.
Ledford was murdered 14 months later in Clayton, GA in August 2023. Her killer, Keegan Phillips, recently accepted a plea deal from the Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office. Phillips will serve a life sentence plus six years.
SEE ALSO: Rabun County man sentenced to life in Ledford murder case
McCrackin is charged with concealing a death, destroying a body, felony conspiracy to commit murder, and as accessories after the fact. He is accused of helping to move and burn Frizsell’s body to conceal her death. The same charges as Smith.
As the case begins to move forward, the four defendants could go on trial later this year.
