Timothy Batts attorney has asked the court for independent drug test on the original sample, that tested positive for cocaine.
Batt told his attorney, John John Pellegrin, he doesn’t know why his drug test came back positive. The District Attorney confirmed Batts tested positive for benzoylecgonie, the compound tested for in order to discover cocaine use.
“I'm not a toxicologist,” Said Pellegrin. “It's just a prudent thing to do.”
Batts was accused of shooting and killing his 11-year-old daughter in Hendersonville earlier this month. A judge reduced Batts’ $1 million bond in half to $500,000 but instated multiple stipulations. Those include, Batts must be on supervised bond and pass weekly drug and alcohol tests.
Pellegrin said Batts' has since taken several supervised and unsupervised drug tests, including one Monday. He added all have come back negative.
Pellegrin said, the tests “just to show he's not using any drugs or violating his conditions of bond.”
Nashville Criminal Defense attorney David Raybin has defended high profile cases for three decades.
He said, “It's a great idea to show the judge there is a pattern of complying with bond conditions. It's not like he had been on bond for months.”
The judge originally said Batts could not pick up any new charges or he would be sent back to jail.
Raybin said if Batts' returns to jail it could be suicide for the defense. He added it will come down to the judge’s concerns if Batts' heads back to jail.
“Is this person coming to court when he's required to or is he going to run away,” Rabin said. “Failing the drug screen on one occasion does not atomically into an unreliable person until he comes to court."
Batts has been accused of shooting and killing his 11-year-old daughter, Timea, which he claimed was an accidental incident after she returned home from school. He bonded out of jail on Friday, August 12.
A new hearing to revoke Batts' bond is set for September 14th.
