Former Doraville Police Officer Miles Bryant, accused in the murder of 16-year-old Susana Morales in July 2022, sits in a Gwinnett County courtroom listening to testimony on June 7, 2024. (FOX 5)
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - A former Doraville police officer convicted in the kidnapping and murder of 16-year-old Susana Morales is asking a judge to throw out his conviction and grant him a new trial.
PREVIOUS STORY: Miles Bryant guilty, sentenced in murder of 16-year-old Susana Morales
A motions hearing is scheduled for Thursday morning in the Superior Court of Gwinnett County in the case of Miles Bryant.
What we know:
Bryant was convicted in June 2024 of malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping and misdemeanor false report of a crime in the death of Susana Morales. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, plus 12 months.
In a second amended motion for new trial filed Nov. 26, 2025, Bryant’s attorney argues he received ineffective assistance of counsel and that the verdict should be set aside.
The filing contends trial counsel failed to object to portions of testimony from medical examiner Carol Terry, M.D., who told jurors, "I'm very suspicious of strangulation, chest impression, suffocation, smothering, something of that nature. And I just do not have the body in a condition where I can prove that or disprove that. And so I've called it undetermined."
Terry also testified, "I can say I'm very suspicious, and that's where I have to leave it," and added, "[a]nd these circumstances are very suspicious for homicidal violence. But I can't prove it because of the condition of the remains."
Bryant’s motion argues that testimony violated Georgia evidence rules and improperly allowed the jury to base its finding of guilt on speculation. The filing cites Strickland v. Washington and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., asserting there is a reasonable probability the outcome would have been different had the testimony been excluded.
The defense further argues that the cumulative effect of alleged trial errors and deficient performance by counsel denied Bryant a fundamentally fair trial.
Bryant was convicted in the July 26, 2022, disappearance and killing of Morales, who never returned home after visiting a friend at the Sterling Glen Apartments, where Bryant also lived. Authorities initially considered her a runaway. Six months later, her remains were discovered in Dacula along Drowning Creek Road near Highway 316.
Susana Morales (Supplied)
A jury deliberated for about six hours before returning guilty verdicts on all major counts.
The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Thursday.