A Liberty County man serving life without parole will have to wait another month on his motion for a new trial.

Eptwarnd Saunders, currently serving a life sentence without parole for the January 2018 slaying of James Caswell Jones, filed a motion for a new trial. His motion was on Judge Robert Russell’s docket for Monday morning but was continued until May 15.

Jones was found shot beside his parked truck on Freedman Grove Road. Witnesses in the area pointed to Saunders as a person of interest.

Saunders was indicted December 4, 2018, and a four-day trial was held from November 29-December 2, 2021. Jurors deliberated for an hour before returning guilty verdicts on all three counts — malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault.

Saunders was sentenced to life without parole on December 6, 2021.

He has claimed trial counsel was “life with parole and with credit for four years already served — until the start of the trial.

The motion also argues the original trial counsel failed to appear for a Jackson- Denno hearing a week before the trial started. A Jackson-Denno hearing is held to determine if a defendant’s statements to law enforcement were made voluntarily.

Saunders has been incarcerated since December 2021 and currently is at Macon State Prison.woefully ineffective” in his defense. In his motion, Saunders and his new attorney, Amy Lee Copeland, said Saunders was not aware of a plea offer from the state — which would have put Saunders in prison for