Silver Comet jury visits murder scene

The jurors had been sent home to retrieve clothes and shoes more appropriate for walking in the woods.

Most of them were dressed for court and not for a hike.

Jennifer Ewing was killed in July 2006 during a routine ride on the Silver Comet Trail.

• Photos: Silver Comet Trail killing

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An hour later 12 men and four women — 12 jurors and four alternates — silently filed off a Paulding County school bus for the short walk to the spot where cyclist Jennifer Ewing was found dead just 70 feet off the Silver Comet Trail.

The judge said an in-person look at the trail might help them once they start deliberating next week the murder charges against Michael Ledford, who could be sentenced to die if he is convicted.

They were not allowed to speak. They couldn’t ask questions.

Only the birds broke the silence.

Judge James Osborne — in his shirt sleeves and looking much smaller and less intimidating than when he was in his robe sitting behind the bench — was with them.

The small group trudged up a gravel road and down the trail to the spot where a yellow plastic marker bearing the number “1” marked the beginning of the path that Ledford took when he allegedly dragged Ewing to her death.

Marker No. 2 was just a few yards up the slight hill leading into the woods.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Tony Volkadav, the only person allowed to speak, pointed to the marker and a mound of kudzu, and said “No. 2. Area where the body was found.”

More silence except for birds and now the buzzing of flies.

At the next marker, a similar pronouncement — the evidence number and the item it represented.

Some of the jurors kept notes on the yellow legal pads the court gave them for the trial. One of the men on the panel frequently stepped off the trail a couple of feet for a closer look.

All the while, Ledford’s attorney and several deputies and a few court watchers and staff followed silently.

At the end of the procession was two news photographers with their cameras directed at the ground because they were told they could only shoot the jurors feet.