PUTNAM COUNTY
Scenes Saturday night on television network CBS will look familiar to local residents as the show 48 Hours will feature a case from Eatonton and Putnam County. Promos that appeared on TV this week have included shots of Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale as he is interviewed regarding the Seth Perrault case.
Perrault is the former Eatonton Police Department officer who was convicted in the shooting death of his wife, Amanda. A Putnam County Superior Court jury found him guilty on Feb. 25, 2022, of malice murder, felony murder, aggravated assault-family violence, and simple battery-family violence.
Perrault was first arrested on Jan. 28, 2020, on charges of simple battery family violence, and cruelty to a children-third degree.
According to reports, Amanda had called 911 that day and told the responding deputies that Perrault had hit her and pushed her. Perrault denied the allegations, but the deputies could see red marks just below her neck that were consistent with her description of being shoved.
Deputies also talked with Perrault’s 8-year-old daughter, who told them that her father and stepmother were arguing, and she saw Perrault shove her mother out the door of the house. Upon the arrest, then-Police Chief Kent Lawrence immediately placed Perrault on administrative leave without pay pending the outcome of an internal investigation and the charges made by the sheriff’s office.
A bond hearing was held the next day and Perrault posted a $1,500 bond. Putnam County Sheriff Howard Sills and Chief Magistrate Dorothy J. Adams talked with Perrault’s wife and encouraged her to not return home, but she insisted all was fine.
On Feb. 3, 2020, Perrault called Chief Lawrence around 1:35 p.m. and said that his wife, Amanda, had killed herself. Lawrence immediately notified Sheriff Sills. Amanda Perrault was dead when Sills and Putnam County deputies arrived at the Long Island Drive home.
Perrault said he was home at the time of the shooting and admitted that he and Amanda were arguing. Perrault’s daughter was at school at the time of the shooting incident. The Sheriff called in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Scene Unit to assist in processing the crime scene.
Sills said at the time that he called in the GBI so no one would infer that Perrault was receiving special treatment because he was a police officer.
“Let me say he is being scrutinized far more because he was a police officer,” he said.
Amanda Perrault died from a single gunshot wound to the head. Her body was found by authorities in the couple’s master bedroom. In her right hand was a magazine to the Smith & Wesson .380 BodyGuard pistol used in the shooting, and the gun itself was located about 18 inches from her left foot.
Perrault was arrested on Feb. 5, 2020, and charged with murder. The state medical examiner ruled her death a suicide, a point that was emphasized by Perrault’s defense attorneys in the trial.
His trial was held in Putnam County Superior Courtroom Feb. 21-25, 2022, with Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit Court Chief Judge Brenda H. Trammell presiding.
The four days included not only testimony from the forensic team but many witnesses testifying to both Seth and Amanda’s abuse of alcohol and marital disharmony. Following the jury’s verdict, Trammell sentenced Perrault to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Motion for a new trial was filed on Aug. 26, 2022, by Perrault’s attorneys and a hearing was subsequently held in Hancock County Superior Court.
According to court documents, the grounds for the appeal included the jury was tainted by press coverage and the venue should have been moved; an improper chain of custody with the firearm that was obtained from the scene; the fact that Sheriff Sills was allowed to remain in the courtroom throughout the trial even though he was a witness; the death was ruled a suicide by the state medical examiner; and other details.
The motion was denied by Judge Trammell on Sept. 2, 2022, and the papers were sent to the Georgia Supreme Court.
Sills said investigators with 48 Hours spent approximately 20 days in Eatonton and Putnam County filming the television show.
“Not 20 days in a row, but they’d come and go,” he explained, noting the camera crews went inside the courthouse, to the couple’s home, and elsewhere.
The Eatonton Messenger also was contacted by the show, requesting photographs from the trial. Many who were involved in the case were interviewed by the true-crime series’ investigators.
In addition to CBS, the sheriff said a British television station also came and interviewed him and shot footage on the same case.
“I asked them why they were so interested in this case, and they said because he was a police officer and they thought he may have received special treatment because he was a police officer,” Sills said.
The show, 48 Hours, about the Seth Perrault case, airs Saturday, Jan. 28 at 10 p.m./9 p.m. central on CBS.