A city councilwoman in Cecil, Georgia was booked into jail Tuesday after being indicted on a murder charge, according to court documents.
Constance Davis was indicted by a grand jury April 6 on charges of felony murder and neglect to a disabled adult, elder person or resident, the indictment shows.
66-year-old Winfred Hardrick was found dead at approximately 11:20 a.m., June 5, 2018, at a Lawson Lane address in Cecil, according to a Georgia Bureau of Investigation statement.
The indictment charges that sometime about June 4-5, 2018, Hardrick, a disabled adult, died when Davis failed to check on him when he didn’t return home “and ensure that he had the necessary food and water for the current weather conditions.”
He was “willfully deprived … of necessary sustenance to the extent that the health and well-being of Winifred Hardrick was jeopardized,” according to the indictment.
Davis was booked into the Cook County Jail Tuesday, jail records show.
She lost her council seat automatically when she was indicted, Cecil Mayor James Spencer Sr. said.
“Can’t hold the position with a felony indictment,” he said.
Cecil City Council will discuss the situation of being one council member short at its next meeting on May 10, the mayor said.
The council, which normally has five members plus the mayor, can still hold binding votes with the remaining four members, Spencer said, “though I may be casting some tiebreaker votes.”
If the remaining council term is less than six months, then the council can appoint someone to serve out the remaining time; if it’s longer than six months, arrangements have to be made for an election, Spencer said.
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