Former Eatonton police officer Michael Seth Perrault’s motion for a new trial was denied by Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Brenda Trammell on Friday, Sept. 2, according to court records.
In a February 2022 trial in Putnam County Superior Court, a jury found Perrault guilty of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault family violence and simple battery family violence in the Feb. 3, 2020, shooting death of his wife, Amanda. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
At that time, Perrault was an officer on the Eatonton Police Department force, where he had served since November 2018. The day of the shooting, he called then-Police Chief Kent Lawrence and told him via phone that his wife had killed herself. He said they were in bed together, arguing, when she pulled out a gun and shot herself in the head in front of him. Perrault did not call 911, according to The Eatonton Messenger’s archived articles on the incident. While he was still on the phone with Perrault, Lawrence called Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills via another phone and informed him of the shooting, and deputies were dispatched to the couple’s Long Island Drive house.
A week prior to the murder, on Jan. 28, 2020, Perrault was arrested on misdemeanor charges of simple battery-family violence and cruelty to children- third degree. Amanda Perrault had called 911 and reported that her husband hit and pushed her. The responding deputy reported visible red marks just below Amanda Perrault’s neck, and Seth Perrault’s young daughter from another marriage told the deputy that she witnessed the incident and ran and hid in the closet. When arrested, Perrault was taken to jail and formally placed on administrative leave without pay. He bonded out of jail the next day, which turned out to be five days before the shooting.
During the February 2022 trial, which was presided by Trammell, Perrault’s defense attorneys, Bethany Lavigno and Justin Kenney of Conyers, maintained that Amanda committed suicide, which they supported with the medical examiner’s documented ruling that the cause of death was suicide; whereas District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale’s team presented evidence that Seth Perrault consistently physically, verbally, and emotionally abused his wife as well as verbally and emotionally abused his young daughter.
For his motion for a new trial, Perrault had different attorneys, which he obtained via legal protocol – George W. Thomas and Robert L. Siriami Jr., of Winter Park, Florida. The grounds on which their motion was based included, in summary: (1) Legally insufficient evidence, citing that a gunshot residue test was not performed on the victim’s or the defender’s hands; and, the prosecution’s evidence of two unspent rounds of ammunition found between the bedsheets was presented in court as having been found by two different law enforcement officials, which “means the photos (of the rounds) introduced during trial are from after-the-fact.”
In her denial of the motion for new trial, Judge Trammell wrote “There was more than sufficient evidence to convict the Defendant in this matter. While the medical examiner opined that the death of the victim was suicide, other law enforcement officials testified to the evidence that did not support such a finding.”
She cited the evidence, which included: the placement of the gun and cartridge; additional blood evidence in another room; shell casings, blood spatter and body position; and the actions of the defendant.
(2) The defendant was denied an impartial jury and his right to have his trial moved to a different county, specifically claiming that Sheriff Sills “labeled Mr. Perrault a killer well before trial. … For instance, Sheriff Sills called the death suspicious just two days after the incident. …. It is worth mentioning that Sheriff Sills is a prominent figure in Putnam County and the rest of Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit. He has been re-elected several times and comes from a long line of Eatonton residents.”
Judge Trammell countered that the defendant withdrew his motion for a change of venue prior to the trial, and she cited the page number of the court hearing transcripts where this was documented. Trammell also stated that, “during jury selection, there was not a great number of jurors who even knew about this matter and no justification for requesting a change of venue could have been shown.”
(3) Cumulative errors, specifically failure to preserve the chain of custody of the firearm from the scene; allowing Sheriff Sills to remain in the courtroom during the trial before he was called to testify, thus violating the rule of sequestration; referring to Sheriff Sills as both the lead investigator and the prosecutor; and labeling the defendant as a “murderer.”
According to court documents, Trammell responded that the firearm was properly identified and introduced as evidence, the defendant had no objection to the introduction of the firearm as evidence at the trial and no objection to the chain of custody was ever made. Again, she cited specific pages of the trial transcripts where that took place.
Regarding the sheriff remaining in the courtroom, Trammell wrote, “It is within the discretion of the trial court to allow the lead investigator/ prosecutor to remain in the courtroom for the orderly presentation of the evidence.”
For “referring to Sheriff Sills as prosecutor,” Trammel responded that Sills is listed on the indictment as the prosecutor; no authority was cited by the defense that this is in error; there is no showing of prejudice by this term; and no objection was made during trial.
For the final reason in the cumulative errors, “referring to the defendant as a murderer,” Trammell cited case law that authorizes such.
Trammell wrote in her ruling that, in following Georgia Codes 5-5-20 and 5-5-21, she served as a “thirteenth juror” and conducted an independent review of the pleadings, proceedings and trial transcript as part of her review of the case.
“Based upon its duty as the ‘thirteenth juror,’ the Court finds that… there is no basis to grant the requested new trial after a consideration of the entire record,” she wrote.