Amanda Farris took the witness stand in Cherokee County on Tuesday night hoping to bring her mother home from jail.
“She’s the most loving person on the face of this Earth,” Farris said.
But Cherokee County Judge Cherokee County Superior Court Judge David Cannon denied bond for Melody Farris, who is charged with shooting her husband — Amanda’s father— and burning his body.
The hour-and-a-half bond hearing revealed a deep rift in the Farris family. While Amanda pleaded for her mother’s release, her two brothers sided with prosecutors who said the 59-year-old Free Home woman should remain behind bars.
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Melody Farris, who has maintained her innocence, appeared at the hearing dressed in orange jail scrubs, flanked by two Cherokee County Sheriff’s deputies and a lawyer.
Cannon said the risk of Melody Farris influencing witnesses and obstructing justice was too great for her to be able to live in Hall County with Amanda Farris and her fiance, both of whom are material witnesses to her case.
Melody Harris has no previous criminal record. But Cannon said the current charges are too severe to merit bond.
She’s charged with malice murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and concealing the death of another in connection with the July 2018 death of her husband, Gary Farris, a 58-year-old commercial real estate attorney. The two had been married 38 years.
One of the couple’s sons found his father’s charred remains on the family’s 10-acre Cherokee County property, prompting the investigation in which with his mother emerged as the prime suspect. She was booked in the Cherokee County jail nearly a year after the incident, when the state gathered enough evidence to put a warrant out for her arrest.
Investigators found drops of blood that matched the DNA of Gary Farris throughout their house. Drops of his blood were also discovered on one of his wife’s shirts and a pair of her shoes.
Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office Det. Daniel Hayes testified on Tuesday that Melody Farris lied to investigators about having an extramarital affair at the time of her husband’s death and did not give investigators a separate phone she allegedly used to keep in contact with her boyfriend, Rusty Barton.
Melody Farris’s attorney Michael Ray said the investigators have the phone records now, so the point was irrelevant to the bond hearing.
Hayes testified about an alleged phone conversation between Barton and Farris in which she allegedly said of her husband, “he’s on the burn pile.”
A GBI analysis of the body showed that he died from a gunshot wound, though the gun that allegedly caused his death hasn’t been located.
Amanda Farris’ fiance and two of Melody Farris’ friends also testified on her behalf Tuesday They all said she would not attempt to obstruct justice or influence witnesses and wouldn’t be a harm to the community.
But her oldest son does not believe his mother’s claims of innocence.
“Our father was the best person in the world,” Chris Farris said before the probable cause hearing earlier this month. “We are shaken.”
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