Nicholas Godejohn Seeking New Trial: ' I Was Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Slave'

Nicholas Godejohn, the 32-year-old man who helped Gypsy Rose Blanchard murder her mother DeeDee Blanchard in June 2015, is seeking another trial. In 2019, the judge sentenced Godejohn to life without the possibility of parole, plus 25 years.

Blanchard and Godejohn planned and murdered Gypsy's mother in 2015. Gypsy's mother abused her daughter for many years by convincing her she had several deadly, incurable diseases and administered potentially dangerous medicine. It's clear, Dee Dee had Munchausen's by Proxy, and Gypsy needed out of the house before her mother killed her.

For Gypsy's part in the murder, she took a plea deal, and the judge sentenced her to 10 years. She made parole last year and will be free in December 2023.

Godejohn was in court last week to ask the Greene County court to set aside his conviction and order a new trial, Springfield News reported. He claims he had ineffective counsel, suggesting his lawyer contributed to his guilty verdict.

Battle For New Trial

For two days, his team of attorneys presented evidence to Judge David Jones, the same judge who presided over his trial. They reduced Godejohn's ineffective counsel argument to three points.

First, his attorneys failed to request a trial venue change. With the national coverage of the case, finding a jury that hadn't heard about it was challenging.

"This case was televised [SIC] nationally, it had national media attention, and I think there was a notion that a change in venue wouldn't have really assisted in getting us around those hurdles," Godejohn's former attorney Andrew Mead said.

Second, his attorneys did not present evidence to support the claim that Godejohn had autism and diminished capacity. Nick's mother said from the start that her son was "mentally disturbed," doubting he fully understood the impact of his criminal actions.

And the last point that his defense failed to mention Blanchard planned the whole murder out. She stole a knife from Walmart and supplied him with gloves. She told him what time to come to commit the crime. Nicholas simply carried out Gypsy's wishes.

New Evidence

Nicholas' new lawyers introduced hundreds of pages of evidence. It included media coverage of the trial, television specials, and news stories. The lawyers showed multiple videos in court. One of them was downright chilling.

In the clip, Gypsy walked into her mother's bedside and pointed at her pillow. She made a stabbing motion just above her pillow. Blanchard recorded the video just a month before the murder.

Other videos supported Nicholas' claim that he was Gypsy's "slave" and did whatever she told him. In the other videos, the couple took part in role-playing. In one, Gypsy called Nicholas, her slave, and he had to do everything she said. In another, Gypsy talks about wanting to kill with him, laughing they can be "evil together."

Plea Deal Failure

Dewayne Perry, one of Godejohn's previous lawyers, said the district attorney presented Nick with several plea deals. He rejected them, wanting a sentence closer to what Gypsy received. The shortest deal was a guilty plea to second-degree murder, carrying a life sentence with the possibility of parole.

"I don't know that he wanted exactly what she received, but I think he wanted something a lot closer to what she received than what the prosecutor was willing to give him," Perry said. "We felt like he deserved a lot closer to what she got than what he ended up getting, obviously."

"It was difficult because there was evidence of deliberation and we were trying to overcome that," Perry continued. "There was a mountain of evidence we were trying to overcome just on that one issue."

The judge did not make a ruling on setting aside the conviction. Now, Godejohn's attorneys and the prosecution's office have to submit resolutions to the case and why. Judge Jones should announce his decision on Godejohn's retrial by the end of the year.

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Do you think he should get a new trial? Do you think his sentence was fair considering Gypsy only got ten years in the slammer? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section below. Don't forget to follow me to read more of my stories.