Megan Boswell faces murder charges in daughter Evelyn’s death
A Sullivan County grand jury on Wednesday returned a presentment charging Megan Boswell in the death of her daughter, 15-month-old Evelyn Mae Boswell.
Angela M. Gosnell, Knoxville News Sentinel
Megan Boswell was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 33 years by Sullivan County Judge Jim Goodwin in the death of her daughter, 15-month-old Evelyn Mae Boswell. That sentence means she will never be released from prison.
After a weeklong trial in Sullivan County, Boswell, 24, was convicted on Feb. 13 of first-degree murder, along with other charges, including child abuse, neglect, tampering with evidence, abuse of a corpse, and several counts of making false police reports. The judge added consecutive sentences after the life in prison term because of the brutality of the crime, he said.
“There is no doubt that this defendant had absolutely no hesitation when she killed her daughter,” the judge said at her Sept. 5 sentencing hearing.
“She is a dangerous offender,” he added, and society needed protection from her even in old age.
Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty in the case, which drew national attention as police searched for Evelyn for weeks.
Boswell used the sentencing hearing to insist on her innocence, saying, “I did not kill my baby Evelyn.”
“The state of Tennessee treated me very unfairly,” she said. “If I had had a fair trial, I would have been acquitted.”
Boswell’s defense attorney Gene G. Scott Jr. plans to appeal the sentence.
“I’m disappointed that he ordered the sentences consecutively. I strongly disagree with him that she is a danger that society needs to be protected from, so we’ll appeal that issue and see what the appellate court thinks.”
Scott said Boswell had the right to voice her opinion and maintain her defense at the stand.
The motion for a new trial will be heard sometime next week once a transcript from this trial is obtained for review.
“The main thing that we will try to focus on in the appeal is that the state never proved a cause of death in this case. If you go back to what the medical examiner said, they never could say conclusively how Evelyn died, and if you can’t prove how the child died, how can you prove it was murder?” Scott told Knox News.
Prosecutors said they don’t think the effort will succeed.
“I feel like we had a clean trial, but the defense will, of course, try to raise issues to get the case back into trial court,” Sullivan County Deputy District Attorney William B. Harper said.
Evelyn Boswell’s death and Megan Boswell’s charges
Evelyn was born in November 2018 to two teenage parents: Megan Boswell, then 17, and Ethan Perry, 19. Evelyn was first reported missing by her grandfather, Tommy Boswell Sr., in February 2020.
Evelyn’s disappearance gained national attention after an Amber Alert was issued by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and Boswell gave TV interviews with changing stories on Evelyn’s disappearance.
Police raided the Boswell family home March 11, 2020, three weeks after Evelyn was reported missing. Evelyn’s body was later discovered by police in a shed on the Boswell family compound in Blountville.
In August 2020, a Sullivan County grand jury indicted Boswell on 19 charges related to the death of her daughter, including felony murder and aggravated child abuse, as well as a dozen counts of lying to various law enforcement agents.
At the time, the presentment did not offer details on the death of Evelyn, although it did list her death “on or about December 2019.”
Boswell was found guilty earlier this year.
Myron Thompson reports on public safety for Knox News. Email: myron.thompson@knoxnews.com