May 23, 2012
Knoxville (WVLT) -- The man at the center of what authorities call a deadly love triangle now has visitation rights to see his two children.
Eric McLean is accused of murdering Sean Powell who his wife Erin was allegedly having an affair with.
He is currently out of jail on bond.
On Thursday afternoon, judge Bill Swann signed an order granting him the right to see his children beginning on Friday.
"For a man who hasn't even talked to them on the phone since June 7th, it's the greatest gift he's had in quite some time," said McLean's defense attorney, Bruce Poston.
The court order says Eric will have two co-parenting times from Friday at 6 PM until Sunday at 6 PM on the weekends of October 5th and 19th.
The visitation will be supervised by his parents and continue every other week unless a court steps in to change the ruling.
"He's so excited that he's hoping he'll get to see his son's," Poston said.
But before he can see his two boys, they will have find Erin, who took the kids nearly a month ago and hasn't been heard from since.
Poston thinks she took the kids to the San Francisco Bay area.
Last week, Erin's attorney says she emailed him saying she and her son's are out of state, safe and the boys are enrolled in school.
"We have to find her, we have to serve her and she has to abide by the court order without having someone say OK you're in contempt," Poston said. "She would be in contempt of the courts order on visitation if the boys aren't with their father at certain times."
Which would mean Erin could too face charges.
"Anytime you ignore a courts order, you are going to get in trouble," Poston said. "That's because it is the court that is going to determine custody and visitation issues."
But as of right now, Erin has done nothing wrong and faces no charges.
She even has legal custody of the children.
We'll continue to follow this story and bring you the latest as it's available.
