A bond revocation hearing for Georgianna Nicole Stephens, 33, was held on Wednesday, February 9, in Emanuel County Superior Court with the Honorable Judge Robert S. Reeves presiding. Stephens, the alleged suspect in the 2019 assisted suicide of Priscilla Riner, had been awarded a previous bond for a criminal offense involving sale of methamphetamine.
Representing the state for the bond revocation was Middle Judicial Circuit District Attorney Tripp Fitzner. Tobe Karrh from Middle Circuit Public Defender Office represented Stephens.
While on bond, Stephens checked herself in as a client at New Beginnings, a rehab treatment facility in Dublin. She was currently receiving continued treatment at the location when approached by GBI Special Agent Eugene Howard and Chief Deputy Nick Robertson with Emanuel County Sheriff’s Office for a recent interview after new information emerged on Stephens’ involvement with the 2019 criminal case.
In the open court session, GBI Special Agent Howard took the stand and, under oath, testified to information obtained during the recent investigation process. Allegedly, Stephens had confessed to assisting Riner with the premeditated suicide to at least two other individuals. This information was then relayed to Special Agent Howard, who then, along with Chief Deputy Robertson, traveled to New Beginnings and met with Stephens to conduct an investigative interview on January 28. She then gave details on entire night as well as events that took place leading up to Riner’s staged suicide.
Prior to the most recent interview process, Stephens had been interviewed by the two law enforcement agencies after Riner’s body was located at an Emanuel County cemetery. At the time of the interview, Stephens denied having any involvement with Riner’s death.
According to Special Agent Howard’s testimony, it was learned that Riner and Stephens had only known each other for a short period of time; the beginning of their friendship having begun approximately around June 2019, just three months prior to Riner’s death.
”Riner was diligent on having friends who only knew certain aspects of her life. She sanctioned her friends off. They may not have even known that they assisted her in her overall plan,” Special Agent Howard further stated.
Allegedly, the two females kept their time spent together discreet and had approximately five encounters during the short time knowing one another. One encounter involving physical relations taking place between the two females, according to Stephens’ confession.
Stephens admitted to assisting Riner with her suicide, confessing that Priscilla asked her to help in staging the death as a murder so that Riner’s son, Chase Hooks, would receive insurance payment, “The death had to look like a murder or the insurance company would not pay,” Special Agent Howard quoted in court.
With her own court date set for October 1, days were dwindling down as Riner prepared to go on trial for the death of her ex-boyfriend, Dustin “Block” Wilson, who was shot and killed in June 2018 at a rental home occupied by Riner on Oak Chapel Road in Kite. As her court day approached closer each day, Riner’s attorney was pushing her to take a plea but Riner was unwilling to do so. According to alleged details provided to law enforcement, Riner made it known to several people that she would never go back to jail, “Basically, under any circumstances,” Special Agent Howard told the court. Scrambling for a way out of her possible incarceration, Riner put her own plan in action.
Riner approached Stephens and asked for her assistance in staging the homicide as a suicide so that her son could inherit insurance money. The discussion between Riner and Stephens originally took place approximately two weeks prior to Riner’s date of death with an in-person follow up taking place in Statesboro the Sunday before to be sure of Stephens’ commitment. At the time of their last meeting, Riner was not wearing her monitor bracelet. Based off of information provided by others, she had not worn the bracelet in a while and oftentimes, would remove the bracelet and place it in her purse.
“Priscilla went to great lengths to evade detection of law enforcement and was very familiar with the GBI case file process due to her own trial she was facing for the death of Wilson,” Special Agent Howard stated.
Knowing the investigation process used by the GBI office, Riner was aware of what to do to prevent law enforcement from detecting the death as a homicide and went great lengths to ensure the plot was carried out accordingly.
On the night of her death, Riner was house-sitting a Statesboro residence located at 728 Ogeechee Drive in Bulloch County. It was at this location where Riner’s plan started to unravel, and she attempted to stage her own kidnapping. Despite Riner’s efforts in staging an actual kidnapping, Special Agent Howard noted in court that several factors were evident at the scene that led authorities to believe otherwise, mainly due to how some items were left after the “alleged struggle” took place.
After staging the house, Riner eventually made her way to Union Chapel Cemetery, located on Trout Trail in Emanuel County, where she shot and killed herself with Stephens being present. According to Stephens’ confession to law enforcement, Stephens chose the location for Riner to commit the suicide, stating that Riner wished to perform the act in a less crowded area to avoid run-ins with any locals or law enforcement but she did not want her body to be left in an unpopulated area unfound for days. Stephens was familiar with the location due to her having family members buried there. The two individuals both went to the cemetery where Riner died of a single self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest.
Additional details were mentioned in court as to how the suicide was staged as a homicide. According the Stephen’s confession, Riner attempted to conceal the suicide by wearing a long sleeve-type sweater over her shoulders, just covering her chest area, and kitchen gloves on her hands that went over the wrist portion of the sweater to prevent gunpowder residue from being detected on her hands and body. Once she shot herself, Stephens then removed the jacket, gloves, gun, ammo casings and any other items that would cause the scene to be ruled anything other than homicide. The death investigation was considered a murder until Riner’s autopsy revealed it as suicide.
Additional allegations have since arose that Stephens, assisted by another female identified as Terri Giles, sold the involved gun to an individual in Johnson County whose name has not been identified. Special Agent Howard stated in court that, per evidence gathered thus far, Giles was unaware of Stephens’ involvement with the assisted suicide prior to Riner’s death but did know of the facts at the time the involved gun was sold.
On January 31, 2022, after Stephens’ confession, Agent Howard filed a false statement warrant against Stephens due to Stephens lying to Agent Howard during an interview held September 26, 2019. During that interview, Stephens did not admit to her involvement in the crime that she later confessed to on January 28 of this year. GBI Agent also added additional charges against Stephens involvement in the crime, including tampering with evidence, concealing the death of another and assisted suicide.
After hearing the presented testimony from Special Agent Howard as well arguments from both parties, Stephens received a conditional bond to return to New Beginnings to complete treatment.
“We’re going to get the case indicted as expeditiously as we can. We appreciate all of the hard work that the Emanuel County Sheriff’s Office as well as the GBI in putting the case together. I understand this is a case with a lot of public interest. While we do not want to sacrifice the quality of what we do, we will try to have this done as fast as we can,” District Attorney Fitzner stated following Wednesday’s court ruling.
Upon completing treatment, Judge Reeves ordered that Stephens’ custody be turned over to the Emanuel County Jail.
Stay tuned with The Blade for more information on this case!
