SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — A former youth detention center counselor testified Friday she did not personally destroy a letter sent to a Sandy Springs murder suspect.
Her attorneys claim the letter was a key piece of evidence in their case and a reason to dismiss the charges.
Channel 2's Mike Petchenik was the only reporter in the court for a hearing Friday.
Prosecutors allege Kayla Dixon and her boyfriend, Nathanial Vivian, met Danny Zeitz at his Treelodge Parkway apartment last September as part of a plan to rob him of a Playstation 4 he'd advertised on Craigslist.
During a scuffle Dixon fired a gun, killing Danny Zeitz, according to police.
Dixon's attorneys claim she received a letter from Vivian during her stay at the Metro Youth Detention Center in which he took responsibility for the crime and apologized for getting her involved.
At a hearing two weeks ago, a Fulton County pretrial services employee testified she'd learned counselor Rachel Carter shredded the letter because "God's will had to be done" and that she was trying to affect the outcome of a trial.
Friday, Carter testified she did not discard the letter herself and that the letter was from another girl who was once housed at the facility, not from Vivian.
"It was from a girl, saying how she missed her, how she loved her and how much she wanted to be with her," Carter recounted. "She (Dixon) said, 'I don't want the letter. I don't want the letter.' I said you can have the letter because someone loves you real much and they miss you."
Carter testified she later gave the letter to a YDC intern she could not name and asked her to give it to Dixon.
"Did it reference a relationship inside the Youth Detention Center?" prosecutor Vincent Faucette asked Carter.
"Yes, it referenced an inappropriate relationship within the facility," she said.
Dixon's attorney challenged Carter's account of what the letter contained.
"Do you remember telling me it did talk about the case?" Leah Abbasi said.
"No ma'am, what I did say to you... I said, "If you want me to say this, I'll say whatever you want me to say,'" Carter testified.
Abbasi played a recording of their phone conversation in which Carter appears to reference the letter coming from a man and that said he was sorry.
Faucette argued that even if the letter existed, and even if it contained the wording Dixon's defense attorneys claim, it does not exonerate her of wrongdoing.
"Ms. Dixon had some direct action in this case. She was a part of the planning, she was actually directly involved in the murder, she pulled the trigger herself," he said. "She had the murder weapon in the car she was driving. She had the Playstation 4 in the car, and her 2-year-old daughter in the back seat that witnessed this whole thing happen."
Abbasi argued her client's rights were violated.
"They want to argue to you 'Judge, we have all this evidence, who cares about the letter?'" she said. "Judge, she has a right to evidence which is favorable in her defense."
Judge Wendy Shoob declined to dismiss the case, but said she was open to further discussion about the letter.
Danny Zeitz's parents told Petchenik the delays have been frustrating, as they expected a trial to begin soon.
"Every time we come here there's another setback," said Patty Zeitz. "We just have to be patient, let the court system work itself out.
Attorneys say missing letter to murder suspect is reason to dismiss charges
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