Guy Heinze, Jr. Appears at Pretrial Proceedings in Georgia Trailer Park Massacre

Last August 29^th, Brunswick, Georgia, was rocked with the news of the murders of eight people in a mobile home while they slept, and the arrest a week later of 22-year-old Guy Heinze, Jr., the son of one of the victims. Heinze was charged beating to death Guy Heinze Sr., 46, his father, Russell Toler Sr., 44; Toler's children, Chrissy Toler, 22, Russell D. Toler Jr., 20, Michael Toler, 19, and Michelle Toler, 15; Russell Toler Sr.'s sister, Brenda Gail Falagan, 49; and Chrissy Toler's boyfriend, Joseph West Jr., 30. Chrissy Toler's three-year-old son, Byron Jimerson Jr., was critically injured but survived and is now in foster care.

Heinze's first pre-trial hearing was held Tuesday, May 25, in Glynn County; prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. At the hearing, Superior Court Judge Amanda Williams addressed defense motions filed last September that would bar reporters from the pretrial proceedings and seal all court transcripts. The defense wants to prevent attorneys and law enforcement personnel from talking about the case to the media or the public, maintaining that coverage of pretrial proceedings could prejudice the jury pool.

Judge Williams denied the motion to bar news reporters from pre-trial proceedings, but said she'd consider closing pretrial hearings that discussed evidence. She also denied the motion to seal the transcripts of the trial, but said she'd consider moving the trial out of Glynn County. Defense attorneys Joseph W. Vigneri and Charles M.J. Nester of the Georgia Capital Defender's Office, argued that, particularly in the weeks immediately following the murders, "there has been massive, highly prejudicial publicity on both a local and national scale regarding this case."

After the hearing, Tyler Heinze, 17, Guy's younger brother, who claimed he saw Guy in the early morning hours of the murders, told the Associated Press, "He's scared to death, and he knows he didn't do it." Tyler added that he doesn't understand how authorities could believe a single person could beat eight people to death. "I haven't heard anything to convince me that one person could kill eight people and come out without a scratch," he said.

Heinze, Jr. is the one who told neighbors to call 911, sobbing as he told a police dispatcher: "My whole family's dead." Virtually no information has been released since Heinze's arrest last September, nor has a motive been established. The initial hearing did not address any evidence, but only dealt with procedural details,

Also present at the hearing was Diane Isenhour, ex-wife of Rusty Toler and the mother of Chrissy, Russell, Jr., Michael and Michelle Toler. Isenhour told the press, "It's a rough road. I'm having faith in the Lord."

Although in custody since September, 2009, Heinze has yet to be arraigned. The Judge ordered an arraignment be held in three months, at which time Heinze will enter a plea. It could be years before the case actually goes to trial.

I, too, have a hard time believing that one person could murder eight people single-handedly, but the crime forum I've been following (Help FInd the Missing) present some pretty valid arguments, mainly, that if everyone was asleep, and you got the strongest men first, he could very well have done it. It has also been suggested that he drugged them before he left the trailer, and returned later to kill them. These are, of course, all just theories. Heinze, Jr. was found without a scratch on him, and no blood or physical evidence has been found linking him to the murders, or at least not any that authorities have revealed. His younger brother Tyler claims that he saw his brother in the early morning hours of the murders, and he didn't appear like a person who had just committed an horrific murder.

This is the first report I've seen on this case since last September, so law enforcement is obviously keeping this very close to the vest. If you'd like to refresh your memory on this case, more details can be found in these two previous articles: Guy Heinze, Jr. , Charged With Murder; Guy Heinze, Jr. Bludgeoned 8 Victims

Sources: News4Jax; Associated Press; The Brunswick News