The Lancaster County Attorney on Tuesday asked a judge to block a defense attorney from seeing the grand jury report that resulted in the indictment of his client for allegedly killing his cellmate at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in 2022. Tyler Stanford has pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of Phillip Garcia on Oct. 29, 2022, a charge that carries a life sentence if he's convicted.
Tyler Stanford Unlike the vast majority of people facing criminal charges in Nebraska, Stanford was charged as the result of a grand jury indictment as part of a review of Garcia's death. Historically grand jury proceedings in Nebraska were secret, but in 2016 lawmakers made those reports open to the public. In 2020, lawmakers added an exception for cases where criminal charges are filed, saying they could be sealed to the public until the conclusion of the case if a party asked.
The intent was to protect the person's right to a fair trial. Here, the Lancaster County Attorney's Office sought to seal the grand jury record, and a judge agreed. At a hearing held by video conference on Tuesday, Todd Lancaster, chief counsel of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, requested to be allowed to see the grand jury records, saying the law specifically addresses sealing the record to the public.
"It doesn't say anything about sealing that from the parties who agree to have that seal," Lancaster said. He said he needed to be able to review the grand jury testimony to determine if there had.