March 16, 11

NEWS / Appellate Division Upholds Conviction and Life Sentence of Melanie Mcguire for Murdering and Dismemb

TRENTON – Attorney General Paula T. Dow and Criminal Justice Director Stephen J. Taylor announced that the Appellate Division of New Jersey Superior Court today rejected an appeal filed by Melanie McGuire, upholding her conviction and life sentence in the 2004 murder of her husband, William McGuire, whose remains were found in three suitcases along the Virginia coast.

In a published opinion, the three-judge Appellate Division panel rejected all arguments made on behalf of Melanie McGuire for reversal of her conviction and resentencing. McGuire was found guilty on April 23, 2007 by a Middlesex County jury following a seven-week trial before Superior Court Judge Frederick P. DeVesa. McGuire was convicted as a result of a joint investigation led by the New Jersey State Police Major Crime Bureau and the Division of Criminal Justice. On July 19, 2007, Judge DeVesa sentenced McGuire to life in prison for the murder, plus five additional years for perjury. The sentence means that McGuire, 38, must serve 66 years without possibility of parole.

“The attorneys and investigators who handled this case for the Division of Criminal Justice and State Police worked hard for justice for William McGuire,” said Attorney General Dow. “This decision upholds justice.”

“The prosecution team, the trial judge and our appellate attorney all did an outstanding job to ensure that the verdict in this case would not be vulnerable to challenge on appeal,” said Director Taylor.

Former Assistant Attorney General Patricia Prezioso and Deputy Attorney General Christopher Romanyshyn prosecuted the case with lead detective Capt. David J. Dalrymple, other members of the State Police Major Crime Unit and investigators of the Division of Criminal Justice. Deputy Attorney General Daniel I. Bornstein handled the appeal for the State of New Jersey.

McGuire, a nurse at a Morristown fertility clinic, plotted the murder of her husband, a computer programmer and adjunct professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. William McGuire, 39, was shot in the head and chest. It is believed that he was drugged and then shot inside the couple’s Woodbridge apartment on April 28, 2004 or the following morning. His body was cut into pieces, wrapped in black trash bags and dumped in the Chesapeake Bay in three matching suitcases. The suitcases were found on May 5, 11 and 16, 2004. The investigation was turned over to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office by the Commonwealth of Virginia Attorney in September 2004. The New Jersey State Police and Division of Criminal Justice were assisted by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, Woodbridge Police Department and Virginia Beach Police Department.

http://www.nj.gov/oag/newsreleases11/pr20110316b.html