Man residing in woods convicted of homicide in taking pictures deaths of retired New Hampshire couple

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A person who was residing in a tent within the woods in New Hampshire was convicted of homicide Monday within the deadly taking pictures 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 had been killed whereas strolling on a path close to their house in Harmony, the state capital. Their our bodies, which had been discovered a number of days later, had been dragged into the woods and lined with leaves, sticks and particles, police stated.

Clegg, who gave a special identify when police questioned him, later burned his tent, erased info from his laptop and acquired a bus ticket out of Harmony, prosecutors stated throughout the trial, which started Oct. 3. Investigators finally discovered and arrested him in South Burlington, Vermont, with a one-way aircraft ticket to Berlin, Germany, a pretend passport, and a gun in his backpack, prosecutors stated.

Clegg’s legal professionals stated 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 expenses in Utah.

In addition they stated an evaluation of shell casings and bullets discovered within the space couldn’t conclude that his gun fired the pictures that killed the Reids.

Clegg was convicted of all 9 counts he confronted, together with 4 counts of second-degree homicide, one rely of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and 4 counts of falsifying bodily proof. The hiding proof counts had been for allegedly shifting and concealing the victims’ our bodies, burning his tent and destroying or eradicating info from his laptop computer.

Prosecutors stated Clegg’s repeated lies, his try to flee, and the gun present in his backpack supplied a path of proof to indicate he was responsible. However protection attorneys stated authorities charged the improper 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 stated, describing the killing as mindless. “We’ve got confirmed this past an affordable doubt. We’ve got 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 is just not responsible,” she stated. “Police investigated, however as a substitute of wanting on the science and on the proof with clear eyes, they speculated. They assumed. … They noticed solely what they needed to see. They received the improper man.”

Prosecutors stated that shell casings and bullet fragments had been later discovered on the crime scene. Shell casings additionally had been discovered at a location later found to be Clegg’s tent website. Prosecutors stated bullets fired from Clegg’s 9 mm handgun had been constant in caliber and sophistication traits as bullet fragments discovered throughout the Reids’ autopsies.

Cleggs’ legal professionals stated an evaluation of shell casings and bullets discovered within the space couldn’t conclude that his gun fired the pictures and that the casing may have come from a wide range 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.

Each side additionally gave differing accounts of a lady who was strolling on the path together 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.