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NEW
BRUNSWICK – Attorney General Stuart
Rabner and Criminal Justice Director Gregory
A. Paw announced that Melanie McGuire was
found guilty of murder today in the 2004
shooting death of her husband, William McGuire,
whose severed remains were found in three
suitcases along the Virginia coast in May
2004.
McGuire,
34, was found guilty by a Middlesex County
jury following a seven-week trial before
Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa. Assistant
Attorney General Patricia Prezioso and Deputy
Attorney General Christopher Romanyshyn
prosecuted the case. The jury deliberated
for 14 hours before reaching a verdict.
By
the jury’s verdict, they convicted
her of killing her husband, cutting up his
body and dumping his remains in the Chesapeake
Bay. She also was found guilty of possession
of a firearm for an unlawful purpose and
perjury. She was found not guilty on the
four remaining counts, all of which related
to anonymous communications sent to law
enforcement.
McGuire
faces a sentence of 30 years to life in
state prison on the murder charge. Judge
DeVesa scheduled her sentencing for July
13.
“Justice
was gained today for William McGuire, thanks
to this jury and the attorneys and investigators
who skillfully handled this case,”
said Attorney General Rabner. “Melanie
McGuire went to extraordinary lengths to
cover up her crime. I’m pleased to
say that the state also went to great lengths
to expose and convict her.”
“This
was a difficult, circumstantial case, and
trial attorneys Patti Prezioso and Chris
Romanyshyn exhibited great talent and determination
in prosecuting it,” said Director
Paw. “They built their case with evidence
gathered through the careful and thorough
work of an outstanding team of investigators,
led by members of the State Police Major
Crime Unit and the Division of Criminal
Justice.”
According
to the evidence at trial, Melanie McGuire,
a nurse at a Morristown fertility clinic,
plotted the murder of her husband, a 39-year-old
computer programmer and adjunct professor
at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
The
couple had two sons and purchased a new
home on the day William McGuire disappeared.
However, Melanie McGuire was involved in
a long-term affair with a doctor at the
fertility clinic.
William
McGuire was shot twice – once in the
head and once in the chest. It is believed
that he was drugged first and then shot
inside the couple’s Woodbridge apartment
on the night of April 28, 2004 or the following
morning. His body was cut into pieces, wrapped
in black trash bags and dumped in the Chesapeake
Bay inside three matching suitcases. The
suitcases were found in the area of the
Chesapeake Bay Bridge on May 5, 11 and 16,
2004, and were recovered by the Virginia
Beach Police Department.
The
homicide investigation was turned over to
the New Jersey Attorney General’s
Office by the Commonwealth of Virginia Attorney
in September 2004. The joint investigation,
led by the New Jersey State Police and the
Division of Criminal Justice, was conducted
with assistance from the Middlesex County
Prosecutor’s Office, the Woodbridge
Police Department and the Virginia Beach
Police Department.
The
leader of the investigation was Detective
Sgt. First Class David Dalrymple of the
State Police Major Crime Unit, who led a
joint team made up of investigators from
the Division of Criminal Justice and detectives
from the State Police Major Crime Unit.
Team members included State Investigators
John Janowiak, Donald Macciocca, and George
Delgrosso of the Division of Criminal Justice,
and State Police Detectives Sgt. Jeffrey
Kronenfeld, Geoffrey Forker, John Pizzuro
and Geoffrey Noble. They also were assisted
by Forensic Scientists Thomas Lesniak, Lynn
Van Camp and Laura Cannon of the State Police
Crime Lab, and Jennifer Seymour, formerly
of the State Police Computer Forensics Unit
and currently with the U.S. Department of
Defense.
Significant contributions were made by Chief
State Investigator Paul Morris, who was
supervising lieutenant in the State Police
Major Crime Unit when the investigation
began, Deputy Attorneys General Lewis Korngut
and John Higgins, and former Deputy Chief
State Investigator Joseph Buttich. Deputy
Attorney General Daniel Bornstein of the
Appellate Bureau provided assistance during
the trial.
The
trial team included Senior Management Assistant
Michelle Zoltanski, State Investigator Thomas
Culp, Special Projects Coordinator Joseph
P. Sine, Victim-Witness Coordinator Gail
Faille, Media Specialist Sharon Grace and
Administrative Assistant Kathryn Cipriani.
The
jury found McGuire guilty of perjury because
on April 30, 2004, two days after William
McGuire disappeared, she testified under
oath in a Family Court proceeding that she
needed a restraining order against William
McGuire because he was a threat to her safety.
Melanie McGuire claimed that on the night
he disappeared, her husband became physically
abusive before packing his bags and storming
out of their apartment.
The
state presented testimony at trial that
Melanie McGuire went to Pennsylvania two
days before her husband disappeared and
purchased a .38-caliber handgun and a box
of bullets consistent with those used to
kill him. The murder weapon was never recovered.
Investigators
determined that in the weeks before her
husband’s murder, Melanie McGuire
used their home computer to research topics
including “how to commit murder,”
how to illegally purchase guns, and “undetectable
poisons.” She also did searches related
to the powerful sedative chloral hydrate
and its availability at Walgreens Pharmacy.
On the morning of the murder, after dropping
her sons off at daycare, she purchased chloral
hydrate at a nearby Walgreens in Edison
using a prescription she forged in the name
of a patient at her clinic.
After
the murder, Melanie McGuire abandoned her
husband’s Nissan Maxima in Atlantic
City. Fearful that she was caught on a surveillance
video as she parked his car in the motel
parking lot where it was found, she admitted
to a friend that she drove the car to the
motel. However, she claimed she found the
car in Atlantic City while searching for
her husband, and moved it out of spite.
The admission was captured in a telephone
conversation the friend secretly taped for
investigators.
Tiny
bits of flesh torn from the victim’s
body when it was sawed into pieces were
found on the floor of the car. DNA tests
confirmed they came from the victim, and
a forensic expert testified they were flesh
fragments that would not normally be shed
by a living person.
In
other key testimony, an expert in the manufacture
of plastic trash bags linked the black trash
bags containing the victim’s body
parts to black trash bags known to have
come from the McGuires’ apartment.
He testified, based on scientific testing
and examinations, that the two sets of bags
were produced by the same equipment from
the same batch of raw plastic material.
Tape
found on the bags held razor stubble that
DNA testing determined came from both Melanie
and William McGuire.
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