|
NEW
BRUNSWICK – Attorney General Anne
Milgram and Criminal Justice Director Gregory
A. Paw announced that Melanie McGuire was
sentenced to life in prison today for the
2004 shooting death of her husband, William
McGuire, whose severed remains were found
in three suitcases along the Virginia coast.
Superior
Court Judge Frederick P. DeVesa sentenced
Melanie McGuire to life in prison for the
murder, plus an additional five years for
perjury to be served consecutively. The
sentence means that McGuire, 34, must serve
66 years without possibility of parole.
McGuire
was found guilty on April 23 by a Middlesex
County jury following a seven-week trial
before Judge DeVesa in Middlesex County.
Assistant Attorney General Patricia Prezioso
and Deputy Attorney General Christopher
Romanyshyn prosecuted the case.
The
jury convicted McGuire 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. McGuire committed
perjury when, in an effort to cover up her
crime, she sought a restraining order against
her husband in Family Court two days after
he disappeared, falsely claiming that he
assaulted her and stormed out of their apartment.
“We
are pleased that Judge DeVesa imposed life
for this heinous and brutal murder,”
said Attorney General Milgram. “Justice
for the victim and his loved ones demanded
it. This was an extremely complex case,
but justice was served thanks to a painstaking
investigation by the State Police Major
Crime Unit and the Division of Criminal
Justice, and a phenomenal prosecution by
our trial attorneys Patti Prezioso and Chris
Romanyshyn.”
“Melanie
McGuire meticulously planned this vicious
murder, researching her plans on the Internet
and going to Pennsylvania to illegally purchase
a gun two days before the victim disappeared,”
said Director Paw. “Fortunately, our
investigators were even more determined
and meticulous in tracking down the evidence
and solving this horrible crime.”
“This
was a well-researched, calculated, execution
of a murder,” said Assistant Attorney
General Prezioso. “I am relieved,
on behalf of the state, that Melanie McGuire
will remain in prison for the rest of her
life.”
Under
the state’s No Early Release Act,
a life sentence is defined as 75 years for
purposes of calculating the term of parole
ineligibility. McGuire must serve 85 percent
of that sentence, or 63 3/4 years, without
possibility of parole. She also must serve
an additional period of 2 ½ years
of parole ineligibility on the perjury charge,
for a total of 66 1/4 years without parole.
She gets credit for 140 days already served
in jail. Judge DeVesa sentenced McGuire
to 10 years in prison for desecrating human
remains, but that sentence will run concurrent
with the life sentence. By law, the weapons
charge merged with the murder charge and
carried no additional prison term.
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.
#
# #
|
