ST. GEORGE, Utah — Over a year later, a St. George grandmother worries that justice may not come for the person accused of killing her two-year-old granddaughter.
Tammy Teeples still has toys and other items from her grandaughter Emmaline Mitchell lying around the home she once shared with her and her own daughter. She isn't willing to move the mementos until she says the man accused of shaking her to death faces trial.
"It's a trial or a flat out, 'I am guilty. I did this. I'm going to admit it,'" Teeples said on Monday.
A resolution hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in the child abuse homicide trial of Emmaline's stepfather, Randy Lessing, who is accused of causing the brain injuries and head trauma that took Emmaline’s life.
Lessing claimed the injuries were caused by the child falling. While his defense lawyer is expected to offer a plea deal at the hearing, Teeples is concerned that Washington County prosecutors are willing to accept a no-contest plea.
A no-contest plea would carry the same 5-years-to-life sentence as a guilty verdict, but it would not carry the admission of guilt that the family is seeking.
"That's going to make me angry," she admitted. "I won't have that anger forever, but that's going make me angry for him to even have that option. There is too much evidence to not go to trial. That's what makes me angry."
Prosecuting attorney Ryan Shaum said he has not seen an actual plea from Lessing's defense, and that any possible deal will hinge on what the defendant has to say. When it comes to a plea deal, Shaum promises to talk to the family first.
Teeples said she and her daughter need the closure of not just a sentence, but an actual admission of guilt.
"My daughter is hanging on by a thread. She's doing the best she can," she said. "Knowing that people who murder children and torture children and it ends in death, get a slap on the wrist, and I do not understand that and I will never understand that."
