Closing Arguments Begin in Husband Slay, Dismemberment
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) -- Melanie McGuire was a woman betrayed by the men who loved her, hounded by law enforcement authorities, and physically incapable of committing the crime she's accused of, her lawyer argued Monday.
Closing arguments began Monday in the six-week long trial of a New Jersey woman accused of drugging and shooting her husband before dismembering his body and throwing it into the Chesapeake Bay in three suitcases that washed up in May 2004.
"There is no proof that Melanie McGuire murdered her husband,'' said Joseph Tacopina, one of the 34-year-old's defense attorneys. "This case is a result of a tragic rush to judgment. They saw what they wanted to see. They heard what they wanted to hear.''
The prosecution argues McGuire killed her husband so she could have a more serious relationship with her lover, Dr. Bradley Miller, her boss at the Morristown fertility clinic where the two worked. The affair began in 2002 when McGuire was 9-months pregnant with her second child.
The prosecution also points to Internet searches made from McGuire's Woodbridge home computer on such topics as gun laws and ways to kill people, in addition to the fact that she purchased a gun days before her husband disappeared.
During his closing arguments, Tacopina said the petite McGuire was physically unable to kill her husband - who at 6'3'' weighed 210 pounds.
The prosecution has said Melanie McGuire most likely had help in carrying out her crime, but authorities have not named an accomplice or charged anyone else.
Tacopina pointed to testimony from the state's forensic expert. The expert said that despite combing the couple's apartment on numerous occasions, investigators found no blood or marks from the reciprocating saw prosecutors say she used to cut him up.
"If you're going to dismember someone in a porcelain bathtub, you're going to leave some marks,'' Tacopina said.
Tacopina also pointed out what the defense has described as an "implausible'' case, based on circumstantial evidence and said the prosecution was asking the jury to perform "mental gymnastics'' by believing that McGuire was guilty.
The defense also highlighted the fact that two men close to Melanie McGuire - Miller and her friend James Finn - both cooperated with authorities to record their telephone conversations with McGuire.
Playing short snippets of the recordings that were played previously during the court proceedings, Tacopina told jurors that they were hearing Melanie McGuire at her "most vulnerable.''
"Melanie was remarkably consistent throughout,'' Tacopina said. "She repeatedly said 'I didn't do it.'''
McGuire's lawyers also painted a picture of William McGuire as a man with a heavy gambling problem who may have been killed by people to whom he owed money.
During his closing arguments, Tacopina said William McGuire liked gambling in Atlantic City and often took with him sums as large as $5,000, though he made $65,000 at his computer programmer job.
The trial was delayed for about an hour and a half due to a violent nor'easter that hit the region, flooding roads and creating havoc for many jurors and lawyers on their way to the courthouse.
After Tacopina finished his closing arguments, Judge Frederick DeVesa announced that the courthouse would be closing at 2 p.m. due to the storm; the prosecution will present their closing arguments Tuesday.
NAME: Melanie McGuire.
AGE: 34, born Oct. 8, 1972.
OCCUPATION: McGuire was a nurse at a fertility clinic in Morristown, called Reproductive Medicine Associates. She stopped working at the clinic after her arrest.
HER ALLEGED CRIME: McGuire is accused of sedating her husband, shooting him twice, dismembering his body and disposing of the parts in three pieces of luggage that were found floating in the Chesapeake Bay, in Virginia.
RELATIONSHIPS: McGuire was married to William T. McGuire, 39, a former computer analyst at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. The couple had two children. Beginning in 2002, she began an affair with Bradley Miller, a fertility doctor with whom she worked. The affair continued until her arrest in 2005.
A timeline of events relating to the disappearance of William T. McGuire, 39, of Woodbridge, whose body washed up in three suitcases in the Chesapeake Bay in May 2004.
April 26, 2004: Melanie McGuire purchases a gun in Pennsylvania.
April 27: Last day William McGuire reports to work at New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark.
April 28: McGuire and his wife, Melanie, close on $500,000 house in Warren County.
April 29: Melanie McGuire reports the couple has a fight, and he leaves their Woodbridge apartment about 2:30 a.m.
April 30: McGuire's car is parked in a lot behind a motel on Atlantic City's casino strip. Grainy security tape footage shows a person getting out of vehicle and walking away.
May 5: First suitcase containing body parts is found by fisherman on island near Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel.
May 11: Second suitcase containing body parts spotted on shore of Fisherman's Island, on Virginia's Eastern Shore.
May 16: Boater finds third suitcase floating in waters off a second island in the bay.
May 17: McGuire, due back at work after a two-week vacation, doesn't show up. His wife calls to ask if the office has heard from her husband.
May 21: Police in Virginia Beach release sketch of murder victim found in suitcases.
May 25: Melanie McGuire files for divorce.
May 28: McGuire phones her husband's workplace, tells his boss that she's spoken with police and McGuire is dead.
September: The New Jersey Attorney General's Office takes up the murder investigation after Virginia Beach detectives determine that McGuire likely was killed in New Jersey.
June 2, 2005: Melanie McGuire is arrested and charged with first-degree murder in her husband's death.
June 7: McGuire is released on $750,000 bail.
Oct. 12: McGuire indicted on charges of murder, desecration of a corpse, perjury and a weapons violation. She pleads not guilty.
Oct. 31, 2006: Melanie McGuire is indicted on additional counts after authorities say she wrote anonymous letters to throw detectives off her trail. Additional charges include hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and filing false reports. She pleads not guilty and remains free after posting additional bail, for a total of $2.1 million.
March 5, 2007: McGuire's murder trial begins in state Superior Court in New Brunswick.
March 21, 2007: Melanie McGuire's former lover, Bradley Miller, testifies the couple were intending to leave their respective spouses and start a life together.
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