Mathis murder trial set for Feb. 1

By DUANE SHERRILL / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Sherri Mathis makes a court appearance alongside District Attorney Dale Potter. Mathis will face first-degree murder charges in a trial scheduled to begin Feb. 1. (File photo)

There will be no trial this year for the former daycare owner accused of murdering her court ward as trial preparations have postponed the case until next year.

The defendant, Sherri Mathis, 39, will go to trial on first-degree murder charges Feb. 1 if there are no further continuances. She was scheduled for trial at the end of August prior to the continuance which came as both sides wrangle over pre-trial motions in a case which is expected to be decided by a jury.

She faces the first-degree murder charges for the mysterious death of Cheyenne Delp, 6, who died in 2004 at the Kings Ridge residence of Mathis, the same residence Cheyenne had called home along with her two older brothers since 2001. Prosecutors maintain Mathis strangled the girl while the defense maintains the child had medical problems and died due to that medical problem.

Delp and her brothers were wards of the court after their parents experienced legal trouble and they were being kept by Mathis, who had been their daycare worker.

One of the reasons for the holdup in the trial is an unsettled matter pertaining to the victim’s brothers, now 11 and 12, as the defense is petitioning the court to have their medical records turned over to them for inspection. Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley is expected to rule in the matter in the coming weeks. The reason for the defense petitioning of the records for the brothers is unknown.