High court reverses pre-trial ruling in Polk County murder, sexual assault case

Georgia’s high court ruled a Polk County court mistakenly revealed to the prosecution a defense attorney’s motion to request access for mental health experts to examine their client.

The state is seeking the death penalty against Dustin Drew Putnal. He is accused of the sexual assault and murder of his girlfriend’s 21-month-old daughter.

According to a news release, the high court has ruled in previous cases, “a defendant has a legitimate interest in making requests for access to expert assistance ex parte if not doing so would place him in the position of ‘revealing his theory of the case,’” the opinion says.

In this highly publicized case, the state is seeking the death penalty against Putnal, who was 27 years old when he was accused of murdering 21-month-old Ella Grayce Gail Pointer while her mother was at work.

Putnal is due to be tried for one count each of malice murder, aggravated battery, and aggravated sexual battery, and two counts each of felony murder and cruelty to children in the first degree.

At trial, the state will attempt to prove that on Oct. 28 or 29, 2016, Putnal caused the toddler’s death by inflicting blunt force trauma to her head after committing sexual battery against her.

Putnal is represented by the capital defender division of the Georgia Public Defender Council. Since Putnal is indigent he had to obtain an order from the trial court to allow his expert consultants to gain access to him.

In June 2017, Putnal’s attorneys presented the court with motions to be heard without notice to the prosecution. The motions requested two mental health experts retained by the defense be allowed access to Putnal at the detention center where he was incarcerated.

On June 27, 2017, the judge signed two orders proposed by the defense, each of which stated that the order “shall be confidential and shall not be disclosed until such direction from the court.”

But three days later, the trial judge – acting on his own and without prior notice to the defense — filed both motions and orders publicly with the clerk of court and had the motions served to the state.

The opinion stated that it is “impossible to know with certainty before trial whether and to precisely what extent Putnal has been prejudiced...he could turn out to have been prejudiced to an extent that would require any conviction or sentence to be set aside,” the opinion says.