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Attorney tries to suppress videos in murder trial
Durden accused of killing 2 men from Meriwether County in 2017
Samuel Ozburn
Alcovy Circuit Superior Court Judge Samuel D. Ozburn speaks at The Covington News' Visions reception after being honored as the 2018 Community Spirit Award winner on Thursday, April 26, 2018. - photo by Sydney Chacon

MONROE, Ga. - Kinterie Kiatis Durden, the Social Circle teen accused of killing two men last year, made an appearance before Judge Samuel Ozburn on Tuesday. 

The reason for the appearance was for his lawyer, Dwight Thomas, to haggle with Assistant District Attorney Patrick Najjar over the admissibility of two videos of Durden being interviewed by an investigator from Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Walton County sheriff’s deputies immediately after his arrest May 23, 2017. 

Thomas filed a motion to suppress the videos on several grounds. One was Durden did not understand his rights when they were read to him, especially the words “waiver” and “revoke” and neither did his parents, who were allowed to be in the room with him because of Durden’s age. 

Another was that Durden was not informed he was potentially facing murder charges.

Kinterie Durden
Kinterie Kiatis Durden, of Social Circle, is charged with malice murder, felony murder, armed robbery, aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with the 2017 deaths of two men near Social Circle.
Durden is accused of killing Smack Harris and Cortez White, who came from Meriwether County to sell a dirt bike in a transaction arranged over the internet.

Harris and White were robbed and shot, and their bodies were found in a truck that struck an embankment off Clegg Farm Road on May 22, 2017.

The final reason Thomas gave to suppress testimony was that Durden’s parents, both of whom testified, were at one point shut out of the interview room for about 30 minutes as they tried to contact a lawyer, who would have advised Durden to stop talking with the investigators. 

Ozburn said he would review the videos and testimony and return a decision in 10 days. 

Durden is being tried as an adult even through the crimes he allegedly committed occurred when he was 16. He faces two charges of malice murder and four counts of felony murder, as well as armed robbery, aggravated assault and firearm possession charges.

Durden is an inmate in the Walton County Detention Center.