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Judge: Motions to wait until January

By Staff Reporter

By new STAR staff reporter Nathan Baker

A Carter County Criminal Court judge postponed ruling on motions Tuesday to restrict public comments and dismiss charges against an Elizabethton mother charged in the death of her 4-year-old son.

“I can’t take these motions up today,” Judge Robert Cupp told Assistant Public Defender Melanie Sellers, referring to the motions she filed on behalf of her client, 27-year-old Tiffani M. Holston.

Because of Tuesday’s heavy case load, Cupp said Sellers’ motions asking him to reduce Holston’s bond, issue an order prohibiting the attorneys and law enforcement officials involved in the case from revealing information to the media and to dismiss the charges would have to wait until a hearing date scheduled for Jan. 17.

Holston was indicted by a grand jury on Nov. 13 on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated child abuse in connection with the death of her son, Joshua Holston, who was struck and killed by a dump truck at Broad Street and Lynn Avenue last month.

During Tuesday’s proceedings, Holston stood silently beside her appointed attorney in a red-and-white-striped uniform issued by the jail.