Crime
The jury discovered Logan Clegg, 27, responsible of second-degree homicide within the deaths of Stephen and Djeswende Reid in April 2022.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A person who was dwelling in a tent within the woods in New Hampshire was convicted of homicide Monday within the deadly capturing of a retired couple who had gone out for a stroll.
After deliberating for a day and a half, the jury discovered Logan Clegg, 27, responsible of second-degree homicide within the deaths of Stephen and Djeswende Reid in April 2022. He faces as much as life in jail when he’s sentenced Dec. 15.
The couple have been killed whereas strolling on a path close to their house in Harmony, the state capital. Their our bodies, which have been discovered a number of days later, had been dragged into the woods and lined with leaves, sticks and particles, police mentioned.
Clegg, who gave a unique identify when police questioned him, later burned his tent, erased data from his laptop and acquired a bus ticket out of Harmony, prosecutors mentioned throughout the trial, which started Oct. 3. Investigators finally discovered and arrested him in South Burlington, Vermont, with a one-way airplane ticket to Berlin, Germany, a faux passport, and a gun in his backpack, prosecutors mentioned.
Clegg’s legal professionals mentioned he left New Hampshire not due to the Reids, however as a result of he had been hiding from police after violating his probation on housebreaking and theft costs in Utah.
Additionally they mentioned an evaluation of shell casings and bullets discovered within the space couldn’t conclude that his gun fired the photographs that killed the Reids.
Clegg was convicted of all 9 counts he confronted, together with 4 counts of second-degree homicide, one depend of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and 4 counts of falsifying bodily proof. The hiding proof counts have been for allegedly transferring and concealing the victims’ our bodies, burning his tent and destroying or eradicating data from his laptop computer.
Prosecutors mentioned Clegg’s repeated lies, his try to flee, and the gun present in his backpack provided a path of proof to indicate he was responsible. However protection attorneys mentioned authorities charged the flawed particular person.
“The state has confirmed to you over the previous three weeks now that the defendant, and the defendant solely, killed Stephen and Wendy,” prosecutor Joshua Speicher mentioned, describing the killing as mindless. “We’ve confirmed this past an affordable doubt. We’ve confirmed to you the way he did it, when he did it, the place he did it.”
Speicher added, “What we don’t know is why. We simply don’t know.”
Protection legal professional Mariana Dominguez argued that the state’s case was constructed on hypothesis and was stuffed with holes.
“Logan Clegg isn’t responsible,” she mentioned. “Police investigated, however as a substitute of trying on the science and on the proof with clear eyes, they speculated. They assumed. … They noticed solely what they wished to see. They acquired the flawed man.”
Prosecutors mentioned that shell casings and bullet fragments have been later discovered on the crime scene. Shell casings additionally have been discovered at a location later found to be Clegg’s tent web site. Prosecutors mentioned bullets fired from Clegg’s 9 mm handgun have been constant in caliber and sophistication traits as bullet fragments discovered throughout the Reids’ autopsies.
Cleggs’ legal professionals mentioned an evaluation of shell casings and bullets discovered within the space couldn’t conclude that his gun fired the photographs and that the casing may have come from quite a lot of weapons.
“They do not know what gun killed the Reids,” Dominguez informed the jury throughout her closing arguments, including that police “solely had eyes” for Clegg’s gun.
Either side additionally gave differing accounts of a lady who was strolling on the path along with her canines and allowed the Reids to cross her and stroll forward. She later heard gunshots, then got here throughout a person on the path earlier than persevering with her hike. Protection attorneys argued that the person she noticed on the path was not Clegg as a result of the clothes he had on didn’t match the prosecution’s description.
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