Jury finds Alabama man not guilty of murdering 11-year-old girl in 1988
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[November 06, 2024]
By MICHAEL CASEY
BOSTON (AP) — A jury on Tuesday found an Alabama man not guilty of
killing an 11-year New Hampshire girl more than 35 years ago.
A factor in the case was whether the jury believed DNA found under
Melissa Ann Tremblay’s fingernails was from Marvin “Skip” McClendon Jr.
After telling a judge Monday they were deadlocked, the jury returned
Tuesday and found McClendon not guilty on the sixth day of
deliberations.
“Mr. McClendon was greatly relieved by the verdict,” McClendon’s lawyer,
Henry Fasoldt, told The Associated Press, adding that he would return
home to Alabama after being held for two-and-a-half years. "We
appreciate the jury’s careful and thoughtful deliberations."
Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker said he “disappointed with
the verdict” but praised the efforts of prosecutors and law enforcement
officers in the case.
“I recognize the work and dedication of the jury during their long
deliberations in this case," Tucker said. "My thoughts are with the
family of Melissa Ann Tremblay, who have suffered greatly due to the
crime that took her life.”
Last year, a judge declared a mistrial in McClendon’s prosecution after
a jury deadlock. The body of the Salem, New Hampshire, girl was found in
a Lawrence, Massachusetts, trainyard on Sept. 12, 1988, a day after she
was reported missing.
The victim had accompanied her mother and her mother’s boyfriend to a
Lawrence social club not far from the railyard and went outside to play
while the adults stayed inside, authorities said last year. She was
reported missing later that night.
The girl’s mother, Janet Tremblay, died in 2015 at age 70, according to
her obituary. But surviving relatives have been attending court to
observe the latest trial.
The family, in statement, said they respected the process but believe
McClendon was still guilty of murder based on the DNA results.
“The DNA was Missy’s way of trying to tell us who killed her,” the
family said in a statement. “As she was being attacked she fought for
her life and got his DNA under her fingernails so that we would be able
to get a match and make the person killing her pay for his crime. While
he was found not guilty in a court of law, he will ultimately pay for
his crime on the final Judgement day before God.”
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Marvin C. McClendon Jr. appears in Essex Superior Court, July
7, 2022, in Salem, Mass. (Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via AP,
Pool, File)
After initially ruling out several suspects, including two drug
addicts, early on, authorities turned their attention to McClendon.
He was arrested at his Alabama home in 2022 based in part on DNA
evidence.
Essex County Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick told the
jury that comments McClendon made during his arrest showed he knew
details of the crime and that he was “fixated on the fact that she
was beaten, ladies and gentlemen, because he knew that she wasn’t
just stabbed that day, that was she was beaten.”
A left-handed person like McClendon stabbed Tremblay, Strasnick
said. She told jurors that the carpenter and former Massachusetts
corrections officer was familiar with Lawrence, having frequented
bars and strip clubs in the city. He also lived less than 20 miles
(32 kilometers) away at the time of the killing.
Strasnick told the jury that the DNA evidence taken from under
Tremblay’s fingernails excludes 99.8% of the male population.
But Fasoldt said there was no proof the DNA came from under
Tremblay’s fingernails or was from McClendon.
Fasoldt also said evidence shows that a right-handed person, rather
than a left-handed person, could have stabbed Tremblay.
He also argued that McClendon had “no meaningful connection” to
Lawrence — other than that he lived 16 miles (25 kilometers) away in
Chelmsford. He moved to Alabama in 2002 to a plot of land his family
owned.
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