AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – A judge denied a motion for a mistrial in the case of two parents charged in the murder of a 16-year-old daughter.
With Day 6 of Leon and Tanya Tripp’s murder trial underway Monday, the judge ordered a five-minute recess after the ruling before bringing in the jury for proceedings to resume.
Testimony lasted until late afternoon, when the jury was released and told to return at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday.
Why mistrial was denied
The judge said the denial was based on the timing of the motion.
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Before court adjourned on Friday, Tanya’s attorney Arnold Ragas asked Judge Charles Lyons to remove the entire Richmond County District Attorney’s Office from the case.
Ragas argued that Kevin Davis, the chief assistant district attorney, previously worked for the Public Defender’s Office from 2017 through 2019 — the same office that handled parts of Tanya’s defense early in the case.
PREVIOUS TRIAL COVERAGE:
Ragas said Davis participated in internal meetings, strategy discussions and discovery reviews related to Tanya’s case at that time.
Ragas said Davis is now helping supervise the prosecution and could step in if lead prosecutor Justin Mullis has to step away.
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The prosecution did not deny that Davis had been consulted but argued the defense’s claims were too vague and lacked specifics about what information Davis may have accessed.
Lyons ordered the defense to file a detailed written motion by midday Sunday, with copies emailed to the court and the DA’s office.
However, on Monday morning, Lyons said he didn’t receive the motion from Ragas. The motion was re-sent and printed in the courtroom just before 9:20 a.m.
Lyons denied a mistrial shortly after 10:30 a.m.
He’s making a separate decision on Davis’ participation in prosecution, taking additional time to consider this specific issue. Lyons says Davis is ordered not to be involved until further notice.
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Ragas said he first heard about the “conflict” with Davis on Thursday evening.
He claims he didn’t know Davis worked for the Public Defender’s Office.
Lyons stated he needed more than verbal concerns from Ragas. Lyons said he needed to know actual knowledge that was harmful to the defense, not speculation.
The court heard from Lee Prescott, the lead public defender for the Public Defender’s Office.
Prescott stated Davis was not formally assigned to represent Tripp, but the office holds mandatory monthly case review meetings and all attorneys are required to attend unless in court.
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Prescott also stated the attorneys routinely discuss cases informally.
Prescott said he had no recollection of Davis attending case review sessions about Tanya Tripp or Davis being involved in Tanya’s case in any capacity.
Latest testimony
INVESTIGATOR RONALD SYLVESTER
Just before 10:55 a.m. Monday, testimony picked up where it had left off, with jurors hearing from Investigator Ronald Sylvester with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office.
When the court left off on Friday, we had just finished listening to an interview with Sylvester and Leon in DeKalb County after he was arrested in May 2017.
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According to Sylvester, Leon said during the interview that Tanya knew his whereabouts the entire time from April 17 to May 23.
Sylvester said an Amber Alert was not issued for Carwell because the case did not meet the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s criteria for an Amber Alert.
Sylvester says he got Facebook records for Janell and Tanya and looked through Janell’s Facebook Messenger. He said she did “a lot of chatting” through Messenger, and she sent her last message on April 16, 2017 at 8:15 p.m.
Leon’s attorney had no questions for Sylvester.
Ragas, Tanya’s attorney, asked Sylvester whether a search of the home uncovered any blood, and Sylvester said there was none.
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Ragas asked if Sylvester had Janell’s Instagram and Snapchat records, and he said no.
Upon questioning by Ragas, Sylvester said shovels found in the back of a pickup were not deemed evidence.
Under redirect by the prosecution, Sylvester said at the time the truck was found, no one in the sheriff’s office knew Janell had been buried.
Sylvester said there are phone records showing that Tanya and Leon were in contact during the early hours of April 17, 2017, but no other day after that.
JAMES H. WILLIAMS
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Williams is currently employed by the Nickel Group, a private security firm, but used to track fugitives for the state and worked for the U.S. Marshals Service.
He said he was tasked with trying to locate Leon Tripp.
On May 22, 2017, he got a tip about Leon and Tanya being at a U-Haul facility.
U-Haul told him the Tripps would be coming back the next day with a U-Haul vehicle.
The vehicle arrived on May 23.
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Williams said Leon was driving it, and jumped to get into a white Kia Optima driven by Tanya.
Leon was arrested that day.
Tanya was not arrested that day because there were no warrants for her at the time.
MARK DOBBINS
Dobbins is an investigator who has worked for the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office for 24 years.
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He is labeled an expert in digital forensics.
He got involved in this case in 2017 – when he was still dealing with child exploitation cases.
He was requested to assist in interviews with Leon Tripp and Tanya Tripp.
He interviewed Tanya Tripp for the first time on May 26, 2017.
She was advised of her Miranda rights, and she never asked for an attorney and was willing to speak with Dobbins. The FBI was present.
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The testimony paused as jurors broke for lunch and were told to return at 2 p.m.
However, the jury wasn’t brought back in immediately after lunch.
Instead, there was intense legal discussion, with Ragas arguing against showing the parts of Dobbins’ interview with Tanya during discussion of Tanya’s apparent cancer, pregnancy and miscarriage.
Ragas claims her discussion of apparent cancer is irrelevant to Janell’s disappearance.
Lyons noted that Tanya brought up her apparent cancer during her interview with Pastor Angela Harden, which the jury has already watched.
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The prosecution argued it is character evidence.
After nearly 30 minutes of discussion, Lyons found the interview relevant and admitted it, but the defense continued to argue against it.
Eventually around 3 p.m., Dobbins’ testimony continued, including a recording of his hourlong interview with Tanya, which included the presence of Carl Wright of the FBI.
Neither Tanya nor Leon Tripp watched the screen as the interview was played Monday.
In the interview, Tanya appears with her hand holding her head up, with her cheek in the palm of her hand.
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Dobbins told Tanya he was trying to get a “better understanding” of Janell’s disappearance. He asked her to take him from the start to where they were at the moment.
Tanya told Dobbins she had lung and brain cancer as well as asthma. She said the smoke from the cookout they were having on Easter 2017 was making her sick.
According to Tanya, Leon told her to go lie down, so she went inside and fell asleep while Janell stayed outside cooking but later came in to watch TV with her.
Tanya says Leon came in around 1–1:30 a.m. and asked to use her phone, supposedly to look something up. She heard the back door and a vehicle leave but didn’t think much of it.
Tanya says she didn’t realize anything was wrong until her younger daughter woke her up saying Janell was gone.
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Tanya tried calling her phone and Leon picked up – she says Leon immediately apologized and told her he had Janell with him. He said he’d taken Janell to help a friend named Maurice whose car had broken down near Clarks Hill.
Tanya says Leon told her they would return to Augusta, Maurice would go his way, and Leon would go his, because Leon had to work.
After that call, she says she kept calling and texting, but eventually the communication stopped. That same day, April 17, she reported Janell missing.
Tanya says Leon came back home at some point and acted surprised with all of the missing and kidnapping talk – at this point Tanya walks Dobbins through what she claims happened.
Leon and Janell went to Atlanta – the truck ran out of gas on Cleveland Avenue; he and Janell walked to get gas; and when they came back, someone had stolen their phones from the truck. She says Leon told her they stayed in Atlanta a bit, then on April 19, Janell said she wanted to go home because she missed her.
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According to Tanya, Leon claimed he took Janell to a MARTA train station, gave her directions to get to the Greyhound bus station, gave her around $150 plus more money for her birthday, and told her to go back to Augusta and call Tanya when she arrived.
In the interview, Tanya defended Leon. She also said Leon told her Janell took a bus back to Augusta and may have gotten off at the wrong stop.
Dobbins told Tanya: “At some point, you need to pick a side because you owe it to your daughter.”
Tanya told Dobbins in the interview she’d lost a baby just days earlier.
Other highlights of the interview:
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Tanya says: “I’m not giving up on finding her.”
“There are things that aren’t just adding up,” Dobbins tells Tanya.
Dobbins starts hammering in on Tanya at this point. He has questions about whether the images of the baby Tanya claims to be hers are actually hers.
Dobbins says, “Do you love your daughter?” and, “Then why can’t we get to the bottom of where she is?”
“Rest assured we are going to get to the bottom of this,” Dobbins says. At this point, Tanya mentions something about “her baby’s body washing up.” Dobbins made no mention of this; she brought it up herself.
Tanya claims she was seven weeks along when she got the sonogram that Dobbins is showing her in this interview. She says she told Leon she was pregnant after Janell went missing.
Tanya says she is in “the third stage of cancer,” including lung cancer in her left lung, and also has brain cancer.
Dobbins accuses Tanya of lying about being pregnant and miscarrying.
Dobbins asks, “How does it make sense that you lied about being pregnant to find your daughter?” and, “Does it make sense he didn’t communicate with you that she would be on the way home if she did in fact take a bus?”
Details of the case
The Tripps face charges of murder, aggravated assault-family violence and concealing the death of another in connection with the death of Carwell, who was Tanya Tripp’s daughter.
Carwell disappeared on her 16th birthday in 2017. Tanya Tripp reported both her daughter and her husband Leon Tripp missing.
Carwell’s disappearance prompted months of community searches, prayer vigils and flier distributions. Many of those who showed up did not know her personally.
Carwell’s remains were found in March 2018 in a shallow grave behind a home on Golden Camp Road — nearly a year after she was first reported missing.
Janell Carwell(WRDW)
The first three days of the trial had a slow start as jury selection proved to be difficult last week.
Some potential jurors said they had followed the case for years, dating back to when Carwell was first reported missing in 2017. Others said they knew witnesses or had participated in community search teams and were excused earlier in the week.
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Patrick Reed said this week there are “10 to 12 guys who have a really legitimate opportunity to win the green jacket.”
It doesn’t take math major to determine that would eliminate more than 85 percent of this week’s 91-player field from winning the 90th edition of the Masters Tournament.
Told of Reed’s assessment, Bryson DeChambeau quipped, “I hope I’m one of those 12. That would be nice.”
Unlike Reed, DeChambeau has yet to claim a Masters title, but it’s still safe to assume he was among Reed’s short list.
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The bigger point is that heavy underdogs rarely win at Augusta National. The first major of the year is the only one that is played at the same course every year. It’s a stiff test that lends itself best to those who are not only immensely talented with their ability to hit a variety of shots, but have experience with the different winds, course conditions and nuances that make Augusta National one of the most unique tests in golf.
And Reed explained 10 to 12 are more players than he typically believes enter a Masters with a legitimate chance of winning.
“I just feel like with how deep golf has been, especially this past year to two years, that the fields are obviously getting a lot stronger,” he said. “I feel like the field this week is really strong like always. I feel like it used to be five or six, maybe seven guys.
“It just makes this event a little bit more special and even more fun going out there and playing against the best.”
Three of the past four Masters have been won by the current top two players in the world: Scottie Scheffler in 2022 and 2024 and Rory McIlroy last year, when the Northern Irishman completed the career grand slam in a dramatic playoff victory over Justin Rose.
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Included in that stretch was the 2023 victory by former world No. 1 Jon Rahm.
The last player to win the Masters in his first attempt was Fuzzy Zoeller, who overcame a six-shot deficit and beat Ed Sneed and Tom Watson in a playoff 47 years ago.
Today, McIlroy will begin his quest to become only the fourth player in history to win consecutive Masters. If successful, he would join Jack Nicklaus (1965-66), Nick Faldo (1989-90) and Tiger Woods (2001-02).
“It’s arguably maybe not the largest field in golf, but it’s the strongest,” McIlroy said this week. “There’s so many great players and so many players with so much experience on this golf course, it’s not quite like some of the other major championships. It seems like you get a lot of the same guys contending year in and year out.”
The conditions could serve to increase that likelihood this year.
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Augusta National has not seen a drop of rain this week. After some chilly and breezy conditions this morning, the forecast calls for mostly sunny — and completely dry — skies throughout the tournament.
That includes temperatures in the mid-80s during the weekend. That’s an equation for a firm and fast Augusta National, which will demand precision with all elements of players’ games.
“The forecast looks great,” Scheffler said. “It’s going to get firm and fast. I would imagine they would like the greens to get fast. I think that increases the challenge of the golf course.
“I’m excited to see how it plays this week. We might get a little bit of wind, too. The golf course is shaping up nicely.”
AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta National Golf Club chairman Fred Ridley said Wednesday that the club supports governing bodies’ efforts to reduce elite driving distance, which he says are needed to protect golf’s integrity.
“My feeling on this subject is [that] failure’s not an option,” Ridley said during a news conference ahead of this week’s Masters. “I think we need to continue to work together to come to some agreement. Tough issues like this require compromise, and I think there has been some compromise to date.”
The United States Golf Association announced in March that it might not implement a new Overall Distance Standard, which would reduce elite driving distances by 15 yards, until 2030. The USGA and R&A had previously stated the new testing rules would apply to elite players in 2028 before affecting all golfers in 2030.
“I want to reemphasize that support and affirm our position as the USGA and R&A represent their collective obligation as custodians of the game,” Ridley said. “I also want to be clear that our position is grounded on much more than protecting the Augusta National golf course. We will continue to make modifications as are necessary to react to driving distances that in some cases exceed 350 yards.”
Ridley noted that amateur Jackson Herrington, who qualified for his first Masters as the 2025 U.S. Amateur runner-up, told him that he drove balls over the fairway bunkers on Nos. 1 and 5 during practice rounds this week
“About a 325-yard carry, and one was into the wind,” Ridley said.
The Masters tees on the par-4, 445-yard opening hole were pushed back 20 to 25 yards in 2002 and additional 15 to 20 yards four years later.
The par-4 fifth hole was lengthened to 445 yards in 2003 and extended by another 40 yards in 2019.
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“I’ve said that we can make changes, but there’s not much we can do to make [additional] changes-unless we tear down the Eisenhower Cabin, and we’re not going to do that,” Ridley said of the iconic cabin near the 10th tee, which was built by the club for U.S. President Dwight E. Eisenhower and his wife in 1953.
“We’ll make changes when we can, but I think it’s time to really address this issue. It’s been talked about for a long time. There’s certainly commercial interests that are at play here, and we all know what those are.”
The USGA and R&A announced in January that they were seeking additional input on whether it would be more efficient to implement the rollback for all golfers on a single date instead of a staggered start. The input period ends April 16.
“Unfortunately, many courses, including some iconic venues, do not have that option,” Ridley said, about making course changes to accommodate increased length. “Until recent years, golf has been a game of imagination, creativity, and variety. The game has become much more one-dimensional.
Ridley argued the proposed equipment changes would be “immaterial” to recreational golfers.
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“Regulation of the golf ball is not an attempt to turn back time or stifle progress,” he said. “It is an effort to preserve the essence of what makes golf the great game that it is.”
Also, Ridley said Augusta National Golf Club supported five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods’ decision to step away from competitive golf and his administrative roles with the PGA Tour to seek treatment, following his DUI arrest in Florida on March 27.
Woods was involved in redesigning the existing course and a new nine-hole short course at The Patch, which will open to the public on April 15.
Later this year, Augusta National Golf Club will break ground on a new TGR Learning Lab, a STEM learning facility that Woods and his TGR Foundation created more than two decades ago.
“I would like to add that we fully support Tiger’s recent decision to focus on his health and well-being,” Ridley said. “Our commitment to the TGR Foundation and to Tiger personally has not wavered. We wish him the very best.”
AUGUSTA, Ga. — When Gary Woodland last played the Masters in 2024, he was months removed from surgery to remove a brain tumor.
At that point, it may have appeared to outsiders that he’d finished his fight. Woodland, though, said he “didn’t know what the future held.”
Woodland, now 41, revealed in a Golf Channel sit-down last month he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in the wake of the surgery. The tumor, which was not fully removed in surgery, was located near his amygdala, the part of the brain that controls fear and anxiety.
Not three weeks after going public about his PTSD, Woodland won the Texas Children’s Houston Open, his long-awaited first victory since claiming the 2019 U.S. Open. Even then, in the midst of his biggest on-course triumph in years, Woodland was struggling mentally.
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“I had a big battle Friday of Houston,” Woodland said Tuesday ahead of his Masters return. “I got hypervigilant on the ninth hole, and I battled the last 10 holes thinking people were trying to kill me. I have security with me. The Tour’s been amazing.
“But I talked to Tour security that night and I told them what I was going through, and every time I looked up on the weekend, my security team was behind me. Any time I got startled on the weekend, I turned around — last year I didn’t talk to Tour security. I fought this on my own. It was awful. Turning around and knowing that I’m safe, having somebody there with me, it’s the only reason why I won like two weeks ago.”
Woodland revealed that the PGA Tour communicated with Augusta National ahead of his arrival, and he’s since met with Augusta’s security team.
“I’ll have, just like on tour, I’ll have security with me,” Woodland said. “The main deal is they were showing me where security is. The whole deal for me is it’s visual, right? If I can see somebody, then I can remind myself that I’m safe constantly.
“So I have a good idea now where security is on every hole. The big deal for me, my caddie knows too. So he can constantly remind me. Like I said, I don’t have control when this thing hits me, and it’s tough. It can be a fan. It can be a walking score. It can be a camera guy running by me, just any startlement from behind me can trigger this pretty quickly. Knowing where the security is is a constant reminder that I’m safe.”
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Woodland said he hoped his win in Houston has “a bigger impact on somebody else’s life,” and that his message to those coping with similar adversity is to reach out and talk to somebody.
“We live in a world, as men and especially as an athlete, that you put your head down and you fight through it. I’ve done it my whole life,” Woodland said. “This is honestly one battle that I’m not able to do on my own. I tried, and it wasn’t working.”
Woodland’s 13th career Masters start is set to be even more emotional than his 12th.
“People ask me, ‘How was the win (in Houston)?’ The one thing I know is having this brain tumor and having PTSD, it doesn’t matter if I win or lose. It doesn’t care,” he said. “I had a tough time (that week) battling this stuff. A lot of stimulation comes with winning, stuff I hadn’t seen in a long time.
“It’s a big week for me this week. The fans are very close on the tee boxes. There’s a lot going on. There’s probably not a safer golf tournament in the world, so I’m happy for that, but it’s still a battle in my head if I’m safe or not. That’s a tough pill to swallow.
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“I’m emotional from the standpoint I know how close I probably was to never being back here, and I’m very proud of myself for earning my way back.”
