Judge denies change of venue for Pittman, sets $1 million bond
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DOWNTOWN JACKSON — A judge has denied a change of venue request for a man charged in the death of his fiancee who was found on the campus of Union University. During Charles Pittman’s Monday morning court appearance, each side argued whether media attention to the case could sway a jury. “It’s nothing that is hostile, or inflammatory or there’s nothing in the articles that focus in on the defendant or attack the defendant,” Judge Roy Morgan said. Pittman’s public defender, George Googe, said as a compromise to his change of venue request the judge will allow him and prosecutors to interview potential jurors individually. “If a juror has heard something or read something about the case, we can talk to them by themselves and find out what that is and how it’s affected them without messing up the whole jury pool,” Googe said. Olivia Greenlee was found dead of a gunshot wound Feb. 11, 2014 in her car outside Luther Hall on the Union campus. Pittman is charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence. Greenlee was his fiancee. The judge also issued Pittman a $1 million bond during the Monday morning hearing, which took place nearly a year to the day from Greenlee’s death. Googe also asked the judge to ban investigators from giving their opinions about evidence, specifically blood found on Greenlee’s passenger side door. “The blood smeared on the door would be, in his view, suspicious of something maybe had been created by someone else,” the prosecutor said. “That’s why he suspected someone else was present at the time.” The judge ruled the investigator will not be giving expert testimony but instead testifying about what he saw in the car and why he decided to proceed on with the investigation. Pittman’s trial is set for May 12 to 14.
