LAWRENCE — The trial of a 76-year-old Alabama man accused of the 1988 killing of an 11-year-old woman in Massachusetts ended Wednesday with a choose declaring a mistrial because of a deadlocked jury.
Marvin C. McClendon Jr. had pleaded not responsible to a homicide cost in reference to the dying of Melissa Ann Tremblay.
McClendon was arrested final 12 months, a long time after Tremblay disappeared. McClendon was linked to the killing by DNA proof, in keeping with the prosecutor.
McClendon’s lawyer Henry Fasoldt mentioned his consumer appreciated the jury being “deliberate and thoughtful” and appears ahead to attempting the case once more.
“Mr. McClendon maintains his innocence and I believe he’s innocent,” Fasoldt mentioned.
A spokesperson for the Essex County District Attorney’s workplace mentioned they plan to retry McClendon.
No new trial date has been set.
Tremblay, of Salem, New Hampshire, was present in a Lawrence trainyard on Sept. 12, 1988, the day after she was reported lacking. She had been stabbed and her physique had been run over by a practice, authorities mentioned.
The sufferer had accompanied her mom and her mom’s boyfriend to a Lawrence social membership not removed from the railyard and went outdoors to play whereas the adults stayed inside, authorities mentioned final 12 months. She was reported lacking later that evening.
Lawrence and Salem are just some miles aside.
McClendon, a former worker of the Massachusetts prisons division, lived close to Lawrence in Chelmsford and was doing carpentry work on the time of the killing, authorities mentioned. He labored and attended church in Lawrence.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”