$500k bond set for Jerice Hunter, mother of missing Arizona girl Jhessye Shockley

A Glendale mother who less than a year ago pleaded with the community to help her 5-year -old daughter, Jhessye Shockley was in court for the first time Friday charged with her murder.

Jerice Hunter's eyes darted about, but she kept composed while her attorney Scott Maasen argued for her to be released with a home monitoring device.

Maasen told the judge there isn't enough evidence against his client, and any interviews with her children are inconsistent.

"We haven't seen any information in terms of pleading or any kind of facts at this point," Maasen told the judge.

"There has been forensic evidence that's been tested, but I can't go into details about that," said Tracey Breeden with the Glendale Police Department.

A grand jury convinced that Hunter may have killed and dumped her daughter's body, indicted her on murder.

But Maasen, a former prosecutor, told ABC15 a case without a body is tough to prosecute, "When there isn't a body, when there aren't credible witnesses, that would make it difficult, you know they have to prove the case."

But County Attorney Bill Montgomery is confident he'll get a conviction, "Our office has successfully prosecuted many no-body homicides in the past."

Earlier this week, David Lamar Anthony was convicted and sentenced to death for the second time for the 2001 murders of his 54-year-old wife, Donna Anthony and her two children, Danielle and Richard Romero.

Danielle was 14 and Richard 12 when they went missing.

Anthony was first convicted in 2002 even though the bodies had not been found.

In 2005, the three bodies were found buried in metal drums with acid when workers transplanting trees in Buckeye uncovered them.

In March of  2011, 47-year-old Bradley Tocker was convicted of murdering 50-year-old William McGrath when there was no body to be found.

McGrath disappeared in August of 2009, after he had met Tocker online and employed him in a design and remodeling business.

McGrath's body was found two months after the conviction, buried under a house near 27th Street and McDowell in Phoenix.

A judge denied Jerice Hunter release with a home monitoring device and set her bond at $500,000.