GOSHEN – The jury in the retrial of Edward Holley still cannot reach a verdict after nine full days of deliberations in Orange County Court.
Holley, 45, is accused of killing Megan McDonald in the Town of Wallkill more than two decades ago. He was arrested by State Police in April of 2023 and faces a murder charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
Jurors continue to struggle with what is by legal standards a circumstantial case and have indicated to Orange County Court Judge Hyun Chin Kim at times during deliberations that they are deadlocked. Judge Kim has urged the 12-person jury to continue to try to reach a verdict. Holley has never confessed to McDonald’s murder; there have been no eyewitnesses to the crime, and a murder weapon has never been recovered.
The prosecution has alleged that Holley attacked McDonald with a hammer in her car because he owed her money and was a jealous ex-boyfriend. McDonald’s body was found on a narrow dirt path on March 15, 2003, on Bowser Road in Wallkill. The cause of death was blunt force trauma, with multiple fractures to the skull. McDonald was 20 years old at the time of her death.
On Thursday, the jury again asked to have statements from the retrial read back to them, requesting the testimony from Dawn Gasca Young. In 2003, Gasca Young was a resident at the Kensington Manor Apartment complex, where McDonald’s car was found after her death. Young’s statements to State Police over the years have changed since she first spoke to investigators in 2003. She initially said she saw two vehicles circling the parking lot at 2 a.m. on Saturday, March 15th, 2003 and described them as a dark-colored car followed by a white car with a black stripe on it.
Years later, when interviewed again by State Police, Young said one of the vehicles was a dark hatchback. During grand jury testimony two years ago, Young then stated: “I can’t recall now (the make of the vehicle), it was like a Honda Civic.” At the first trial, Young, said that the car was a Honda Civic, and saw the vehicles just after midnight on Friday, March 14th, and the white car was being followed by the dark vehicle.
After hearing Young’s testimony, the jury deliberated for about three hours on Thursday without reaching a verdict. Jury deliberations, which began at approximately 4 p.m. on Feb. 28, resume on Friday morning in Judge Kim’s courtroom.
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