A Georgia woman accused of killing a 4-year-old may face the death penalty after a judge refused to dismiss the charges against her.
Jessica Motes, 37, has pleaded not guilty to charges including felony murder, malice murder, aggravated battery, and child abuse in the death of Autumn Fox, whose body was found in the trunk of her car parked outside Sam’s Club in October 2025.
Motes’ attorneys filed several motions to dismiss the charges, arguing in part that the grand jury indictments lacked enough detail to be legally valid. “Each count of the indictment, individually and collectively, is too vague, ambiguous, and indefinite, thereby depriving Jessica Maria Motes of her constitutional rights guaranteed under the Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments,” her attorney, Melinda Ryals, wrote in her motion to dismiss.
The felony murder and malice murder indictments, handed down by a grand jury on Jan. 12, 2026, do not detail exactly how Autumn was killed. They allege that the defendant “did, with malice aforethought, cause the death of Autumn Fox, a human being, by subjecting her to blunt force trauma by means unknown to the grand jury and exposing her to fentanyl, methamphetamine and [x]ylazine.”
While Ryals argued that failing to reveal further details made it difficult to prepare a defense, prosecutor Harold Buckler said he cannot reveal information he does not have. “The state is well aware this is a very unusual indictment,” he said at a July hearing on the issue. “I don’t think I’ve ever, in my life, put this many phrases like ‘expose,’ ‘unknown to the grand jury,’ ‘the nature of which I don’t know,’ that I’ve ever put that many into an indictment. And I guess I kind of struggle over this week, trying to figure out that it just entirely seems entirely wholly and totally unfair to Ms. Motes, especially given the fact we’re trying to execute her as a result of what she’s done,” Buckler said. But, he added, “In a very realistic sense, it’s the State of Georgia that’s going to be limited by this as much, if not more than, the defense.”
Judge Lindsay Burton wrote in her order denying Motes’ motion to dismiss that established case law does not require prosecutors to “allege all the details of the crime in an indictment, so long as the allegations contain enough detail to ‘allow a defendant to prepare his defense intelligently.’” Burton found that the indictments each stated the essential elements of the offenses alleged with “enough detail to sufficiently apprise the Defendant of what she must be prepared to defend against at trial.”
On the aggravated battery and child abuse charges, the indictment specifies that Autumn had a broken arm. Burton ruled that any further detail would be superfluous.
Ryals immediately filed several motions demanding evidence from prosecutors, including any available electronic surveillance and expert reports. Another motion requested that Motes be allowed to inspect all physical and forensic evidence in the case against her.
Motes is scheduled to return to court on Nov. 23 for a pretrial hearing.
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Judge refuses to dismiss charges against woman after 4-year-old found dead in trunk