SULLIVAN COUNTY, Tenn. (WJHL) – The Sullivan County District Attorney General’s office stated Friday in court that they would be seeking a sentence of life imprisonment without parole should Megan Boswell be found guilty in the death of her daughter, Evelyn.

The district attorney’s office will not seek the death penalty against Megan Boswell.

You can watch News Channel 11’s stream of the court appearance below:

Megan Boswell has been charged with two counts of felony murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated child neglect, and other charges.

She has pleaded not guilty to all 19 of the charges she faces. Megan appeared in court virtually from the Sullivan County Jail, where she’s been held since her arrest in February 2020.

District Attorney General Barry Staubus made the announcement in court Friday morning.

According to court documents, the state is seeking the sentence due to the fact that Evelyn was a person less than 12 years of age and Megan is a defendant over the age of 18.

Boswell’s attorney, Brad Sproles, stated the defense still needed to go through some recordings that hadn’t been provided to them.

The district attorney general’s office is still going through some of the information before sharing it with Sproles.

Following the hearing, Sproles told News Channel 11 he was not surprised the state chose not to seek the death penalty against her.

“I think the law was probably against the state for the death penalty,” said Sproles.

Staubus said based on legal precedent from the Tennessee Supreme Court, he determined life imprisonment without parole was the best option for state prosecutors to pursue.

Staubus cited the huge amount of evidence, including forensic, interviews, and reports, as a complicating factor in the case. He said prosecutors are still waiting for some forensic evidence to be returned.

“So we’re not finished with the process. And of course when we recieve that, we have to provide that to defense counsel, and they have to be able to review it and evaluate it before trial,” said Staubus.

Megan spoke at one point in Friday’s proceedings.

“Mr. Sproles and I have resolved any issues I had with his representation, your Honor,” she said.

“Alright, so you’re good to go forward?” Judge James Goodwin asked.

“Yes sir,” said Megan.

Sproles addressed the moment after court.

“I’m sure you can understand, in a serious case like this there’s sometimes some issues,” he said. “You don’t always agree on things. And she had expressed some concerns to me. And we met and talked about those. I left it in her discretion what she wanted to do. She apparently decided we had worked through our issues, and she wanted me to continue on as her attorney.”

Sproles has been going through the stacks of information he’s been given with Megan.

“She reads through it, asks good questions about it. So I have no complaints about her at all,” he said.

Sproles also addressed the change of venue motion he had previously filed due to the heavy media coverage surrounding Megan’s case. On Friday, he said the motion was filed prematurely.

“It was simply everybody I talked to asked me, you know, they would say, ‘Hello.’ And the next thing out of their mouth was, ‘Are you going to ask for a change of venue?’ So I went ahead and filed it,” Sproles said. “I know that it was early. There’s some procedures that we will have to follow in that motion. I think the judge will have us and the state take some steps before he finally rules on that motion. There’s some things that we can do, such as jury questionnaires, to test out the jury pool to see if there’s prejudice because of the publicity.”

Sproles also said more motions could be filed, based on the evidence.

Judge Goodwin set a status hearing for May 14. Attorneys said by that date, they hope to have reviewed all the evidence involved in the case.