BRIDGETON – A woman charged with killing and dismembering her 23-month old son earlier this year lost a bid to get out of jail on Thursday when a judge turned away a defense argument that her detention was unfair because the father also should be a suspect.

Instead, Cumberland County Superior Court Judge Robert Malestein continued a pre-trial detention order that he had issued on Feb. 19 against defendant Nakira M. Griner.

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Additionally, Malestein granted a previously filed prosecution request for extra time to assemble an indictment. The state will have 45 days in addition to the maximum of 90 days between arrest and indictment required under New Jersey’s “speedy trial” law.

Deputy Public Defender Kimberly A. Schultz filed a motion on May 2 for the court to hold another bail hearing. She cited as justification that the defense had “new information not available at the time of the initial detention hearing.”

In her motion, Schultz stated: “On March 5, 2019, Mr. Daniel Griner, the deceased child’s father and husband of Mrs. Griner went to the Prosecutor’s Office to report that he had abused the minor child with a belt on at least 4 occasions in the days leading up to his death. Mr. Griner was not charged, although the Prosecutor’s officer asked counsel to speak with Mrs. Griner.”

Defense: Father should be considered a suspect

Schultz added: “The Defense believes the State is unable to prove a cause of death and thus, Mr. Griner should be considered as much of a suspect as Mrs. Griner. The uncertainty surrounding this investigation proves that the State acted too quickly, without fully investigating all parties involved.”

The state did not file a written response to the claims, but in court on Thursday Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Vogelsong stated the investigation does not show that the child’s father was in any way connected to the homicide.

Vogelsong said investigators had checked on his work schedule and presence at a hospital where he works to make that determination. The scope and complexity of the homicide investigation also was presented to Malestein.

No charge has been filed against the father.

Nakira Griner was absent for her detention hearing nearly three months ago due to what her counsel called “mental health” issues, but she was in court for the hearing on Thursday. She now is being held in Cape May County Jail, where she turned 25 years old on Monday.

Nakira Griner was arrested early morning hours on Saturday, Feb. 9, in the death of Daniel Griner Jr., who was named after his father and was the older of the couple’s two children.

The charges filed are first-degree murder; second-degree endangering the welfare of a child; second-degree desecration of human remains; and fourth-degree tampering with evidence.

Baby's body parts found in trash bags, purse

The sequence of events leading to her arrest started about 6:36 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 8.

Griner then reported to Bridgeton police she had been attacked while walking to a store with her two children. She said Daniel Griner Jr., age 23 months, was taken from his stroller during the assault. Her infant son was strapped to her chest and was not taken.

The Child Abduction Response Team, city police, county detectives, New Jersey State Police, and New Jersey Park Police swarmed the area.

A consensual search also was done at the family house. The burned and separated body parts of her older son were found about 3 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 9.

The body parts were found in trash bags and a purse, or pocketbook, in the yard of the family home at 21 Woodland Drive in Bridgeton, according to investigators.

According to court papers, a Bridgeton city forensic detective searched the pocketbook and found human remains and dirt. Daniel Griner Sr. identified the pocketbook as his wife’s.

The pocketbook also showed an apparent shoeprint “consistent” with Ugg boots. Nakira Griner was wearing Ugg boots on Feb. 8 and had dirt on the knees of her pants, police noted.

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Investigators and the prosecutor, in statements and testimony, say Nakira Griner changed her story under questioning. Video that investigators found also did not support her account. Nor, they assessed, did she show physical signs of having been assaulted.

Those events are outlined in a police affidavit and were amplified at the Feb. 19 pretrial detention hearing. The progress and difficulties of the continuing investigation are laid out in Vogelsong’s request for more time to draft an indictment.

That motion, which was sent to the court on April 15, states that the “cause and manner of death are pending until further analysis and consultation.”

“The defendant’s arrest certainly did not put an end to the State’s investigation,” Vogelsong stated in the letter to Malestein. “Investigators obtained search warrants and communications-date warrants in order to conduct forensic examinations on two IPADS and an IMAC computer recovered from the suspect’s home. Communications warrants were obtained for the Facebook profile and Google account of Nakira Griner.”

That data needs to be analyzed and correlated, she stated.

Vogelsong adds: “Investigators also traveled to Florida to conduct an interview of a possible witness. This was accomplished on March 25 and reports are still pending. The results of the forensic examination of the phone as well as CDW results for call detail records are still pending. Reports from the main investigators are also still pending. Final autopsy and forensic reports are still outstanding.”

The request for more time to indict also argues against releasing Nakira Griner because of the main charge is murder and additionally because of the context of the child’s death. The defendant also may obstruct the investigation if she were free, the motion argued.

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Joseph P. Smith; jpsmith_dj; (856) 563-5252; jsmith@gannettnj.com