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TRENTON
– Attorney General Paula T. Dow and
Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor
announced that the Appellate Division of
New Jersey Superior Court today rejected
an appeal filed by Melanie McGuire, upholding
her conviction and life sentence in the
2004 murder of her husband, William McGuire,
whose remains were found in three suitcases
along the Virginia coast.
In
a published opinion, the three-judge Appellate
Division panel rejected all arguments made
on behalf of Melanie McGuire for reversal
of her conviction and resentencing. McGuire
was found guilty on April 23, 2007 by a
Middlesex County jury following a seven-week
trial before Superior Court Judge Frederick
P. DeVesa. McGuire was convicted as a result
of a joint investigation led by the New
Jersey State Police Major Crime Bureau and
the Division of Criminal Justice. On July
19, 2007, Judge DeVesa sentenced McGuire
to life in prison for the murder, plus five
additional years for perjury. The sentence
means that McGuire, 38, must serve 66 years
without possibility of parole.
“The
attorneys and investigators who handled
this case for the Division of Criminal Justice
and State Police worked hard for justice
for William McGuire,” said Attorney
General Dow. “This decision upholds
justice.”
“The
prosecution team, the trial judge and our
appellate attorney all did an outstanding
job to ensure that the verdict in this case
would not be vulnerable to challenge on
appeal,” said Director Taylor.
Former
Assistant Attorney General Patricia Prezioso
and Deputy Attorney General Christopher
Romanyshyn prosecuted the case with lead
detective Capt. David J. Dalrymple, other
members of the State Police Major Crime
Unit and investigators of the Division of
Criminal Justice. Deputy Attorney General
Daniel I. Bornstein handled the appeal for
the State of New Jersey.
McGuire,
a nurse at a Morristown fertility clinic,
plotted the murder of her husband, a computer
programmer and adjunct professor at the
New Jersey Institute of Technology. William
McGuire, 39, was shot in the head and chest.
It is believed that he was drugged and then
shot inside the couple’s Woodbridge
apartment on April 28, 2004 or the following
morning. His body was cut into pieces, wrapped
in black trash bags and dumped in the Chesapeake
Bay in three matching suitcases. The suitcases
were found on May 5, 11 and 16, 2004. The
investigation was turned over to the New
Jersey Attorney General’s Office by
the Commonwealth of Virginia Attorney in
September 2004. The New Jersey State Police
and Division of Criminal Justice were assisted
by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s
Office, Woodbridge Police Department and
Virginia Beach Police Department.
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