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A woman sentenced to life in prison for murdering her husband threw her son under the bus for his death shortly before the sentencing.
Melody Farris, 64, was sentenced in Cherokee County, Georgia earlier in November on charges of malice murder, aggravated murder, aggravated assault, concealment of death and making a false statement.
During her trial, prosecutors revealed that Faris had an affair in 2009, which allegedly led to the degradation of her marriage to attorney Gary Wayne Farris. Nine years later, Gary was murdered.
Just before the sentencing, Faris decided to drop a bomb in the courtroom; she said that she would find the real culprit behind her husband’s murder.
According to Farris, she did not kill her husband, but her son Scott.
“I was six-plus years old when I was told not to talk, not to say that, to seek legal advice. I could walk out of this courtroom today and drop dead,” she said in court. “I want to make sure that my children, my grandchildren and Gary’s family, and to be honest, at this point, the whole world that was watching this… I’ve been waiting for years to make this statement to everybody.”
She accused her son of taking “Big Daddy” away from her and his siblings and said that although she had spent her life protecting and loving him, she would tell “the truth”. Farris also claimed that her own mother advised her to go down for murder.
This is not the first time Scott has been charged in his father’s death; Faris’ defense attorneys also tried to pin the blame on her son, basing their case in part on the fact that he was the one who discovered his father’s body in a burn pile on the family property.
Police initially believed Gary had suffered a medical emergency and collapsed in a pile of burns, but they later found a .38 caliber bullet lodged in his chest. The defense argued that Scott was the only family member who owned that caliber of bullet.
However, prosecutors alleged that Farris and her husband had been fighting over money, noting that Farris was the beneficiary of her husband’s $2 million life insurance policy, according to Tribune Ledger.
Scott, who testified during the trial, denied any involvement in his father’s death.
Farris charged Scott with murder and manslaughter before asking a judge for mercy.
“I know it in my heart, body and soul, who did this,” she said. “And I’m asking for help. I’m begging you, Judge Cannon. Please don’t send me to jail for something I didn’t do. I didn’t do this. If I did this, I’d gladly accept this charge.”
The judge ultimately sentenced her to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years, but noted his skepticism that she would live long enough to attempt parole.