The senior judge presiding over a July hearing on a Bradley County, Tennessee, second-degree murder defendant’s motion for acquittal and a new trial denied the motion, according to court documents.
Senior Judge Don Ash ruled Oct. 7 against Miranda Cheatham’s 2018 motion for acquittal in her second-degree murder conviction, meaning she will remain in prison on her 18-year sentence in the 2016 slaying of her husband, James Cheatham.
In July, Cheatham challenged her 2018 conviction, making allegations that 10th Judicial District Attorney General Stephen D. Crump had a conflict of interest in the case that included withholding an audio recording referring to an alleged sexual affair he had with the victim’s half-sister and legal title work he did for her in private practice.
Crump has denied the allegations of an affair or that he was being blackmailed into securing a second-degree murder conviction.
Ash’s ruling “returned the focus on this case to its rightful place, the murder of James Cheatham by Miranda Cheatham,” Crump said in an emailed statement on Ash’s ruling.