Judge denies release for N.J. mom jailed for 3 years on charges she killed son

A judge has denied a motion for pre-trial release of a Cumberland County woman jailed for 3 years while she awaits trial on charges that she killed her child.

Nakira M. Griner, 28, of Bridgeton, is accused of killing, burning and dismembering her 23-month-old son Daniel Griner Jr. in 2019. She then claimed he had been abducted, authorities said.

Griner was arrested in February 2019 and has remained jailed ever since.

Her attorney, Jill Cohen, argued in an August motion that her client should be released pre-trial since she had been detained beyond the two-year limit set for defendants awaiting trial under state criminal justice reform measures enacted in 2017.

Exceptions are factored in to account for delays attributed to the defense or unusual events, such as the coronavirus pandemic, which caused the state to suspend criminal jury trials from March 2020 through June of last year.

Based on her count, Cohen argued in her motion that Griner should have been released in April of this year, though Superior Court Judge George H. Gangloff Jr. stated in a hearing last month that the release date was actually late September.

With that in mind, Gangloff had set a trial start date of Monday for the case.

Daniel Griner Jr.

The prosecution filed a response to Cohens motion, arguing that many days of delays that should count against the defense had yet to be factored into the timeline.

Based on his review of those days, Gangloff granted some of what the prosecution sought during a hearing on Monday and reset her release eligibility date to Oct. 27. Under the prosecutions motion, the release date would have been reset to Feb. 27, 2023.

Cohen had argued in her August motion that the prosecution wasnt prepared to start the trial in August because Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Parvin was busy with another murder trial, and that this delay should not be held against Griner.

Parvin countered that the state had been ready to begin the trial for months and could have gone to trial earlier had it not been for a defense request for a later trial date, which Parvin warned the court would potentially conflict with the start of her other case.

Jury selection is currently underway in her other trial and Parvin asked Gangloff in August and again on Monday to schedule the start of the Griner trial for Oct. 17 so that she could complete the other case, which also involves the killing of a Bridgeton child.

Its not a simple matter of substituting another attorney to handle the Griner matter, Parvin stated in her motion, noting that she has been working with the victims family since the beginning.

The pendency of the case has been very emotional and traumatizing on the family. For them to hear the State is instructed to send another assistant prosecutor to handle the trial at the last minute, without any preparation, is an injustice, she wrote.

While Gangloff said he understood the prosecutions predicament, he cited the need to keep the case moving forward and set jury selection to begin Oct. 6. He agreed to conduct jury selection on days when Parvins other trial isnt in session.

When Harold Shapiro, first assistant prosecutor with the Cumberland County Prosecutors Office who is assisting Parvin on this case, raised the issue again during the Monday hearing, Gangloff said he was open to reconsidering that start date when the parties return to court at the end of this month for pre-trial motion hearings.

Cohen stated that she did not object to the Oct. 17 start.

I understand the argument that you are making and why you are making it, Gangloff told the prosecutors. I respect the issue that youre mentioning. There are time constraints here Im trying to accommodate everybodys interests, including the courts, in trying to make sure this matter moves forward in a timely way without any additional complications.

The court system has been under pressure to move a backlog of cases to trial because of delays caused by the pandemic and by a shortage of Superior Court judges.

Griner was arrested in 2019 after an investigation that began with the report of an abducted child. She called 911 on the evening of Feb. 8 to report that she was walking to a store in downtown Bridgeton with Daniel in a stroller and her infant son strapped to her chest when someone knocked her to the ground, authorities said. When she looked up, Daniel and the stroller were gone, authorities said she told police.

Hours later, Griner changed her story, according to police, telling them Daniel accidentally fell down a flight of stairs in the family home and that she had left the injured boy alive and in a stroller on a street in hopes that someone would find and help him. Griner claimed she feared being blamed for his injuries, authorities said.

Early the following morning, police found the childs burned and dismembered remains stuffed in a handbag and trash bags under a shed located in the rear yard of the familys property, authorities said.

Griner is charged with first-degree murder, disturbing or desecrating human remains, tampering with evidence, endangering the welfare of a child and false public alarm.

Cohen stated in a previous court filing that her client didnt deny destroying the childs remains, but didnt knowingly and purposefully cause his death.

Last year, Griner rejected a plea offer under which she would have had to serve 30 years in prison in return for a guilty plea to the murder charge.

A peaceful protest is held outside the Cumberland County Superior Courthouse following the detention hearing of Nakira Griner, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2019. Griner is charged with murder in the death of her 23-month-old son, Daniel Griner Jr.Joe Warner | For NJ Advance Media

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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.