LOCKPORT – The attorney for Tyler S. Best, the Buffalo man accused of helping dispose of the corpse of a 5-year-old girl in a Niagara Falls garbage tote, said Wednesday he will seek to have Best tried separately from the girl’s alleged killer.
Best, 18, of Barnard Street, is charged with a felony count of tampering with physical evidence for allegedly helping John S. Freeman Jr. throw away the body of Isabella S. Tennant, the Cheektowaga girl who was allegedly strangled in her great-grandparents’ Niagara Falls home Aug. 26.
Freeman, 17, of Sixth Street, Niagara Falls, who is charged with second-degree murder, had been baby-sitting the girl, police said. Best went to Police Headquarters the next day and told them where to find the body.
He and Best are scheduled to be tried jointly April 15, but Best’s attorney, James J. Faso Jr., said he will file a severance motion. Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III said he will rule on the request by March 7.
Best’s statements are admissible in full, since a police videotape of the interview showed him under no duress as he freely shared his role in the disposal of the girl’s body and gave “a detailed description of where to find it,” Murphy ruled Thursday.
Best, 18, of Barnard Street, is charged with a felony count of tampering with physical evidence for allegedly helping John S. Freeman Jr. throw away the body of Isabella S. Tennant, the Cheektowaga girl who was allegedly strangled in her great-grandparents’ Niagara Falls home Aug. 26.
Freeman, 17, of Sixth Street, Niagara Falls, who is charged with second-degree murder, had been baby-sitting the girl, police said. Best went to Police Headquarters the next day and told them where to find the body.
He and Best are scheduled to be tried jointly April 15, but Best’s attorney, James J. Faso Jr., said he will file a severance motion. Niagara County Judge Matthew J. Murphy III said he will rule on the request by March 7.
Best’s statements are admissible in full, since a police videotape of the interview showed him under no duress as he freely shared his role in the disposal of the girl’s body and gave “a detailed description of where to find it,” Murphy ruled Thursday.