GOSHEN – The jury in the Megan McDonald murder retrial has not reached a verdict after two weeks of deliberations, and the 12-person panel could spend additional time in the courtroom next week.
After the jury was unable to reach a verdict on Friday, Orange County Court Judge Hyun Chin Kim informed them that court sessions will be extended to 6 or 6:30 p.m., starting Monday. Sessions in the trial typically end at approximately 4:30 p.m.
“We are going to work until 6 or 6:30, and we will do that for the rest of the week, if necessary,” Judge Kim said. “I’m telling you this now as a courtesy so that you can make arrangements to accommodate your schedule and expect that it will happen.”
Edward Holley, 45, stands accused of killing McDonald in the Town of Wallkill in 2003. The jury has struggled to reach a verdict and, at times, has informed Judge Kim that it was deadlocked. Kim has asked the jurors to continue deliberating.
Holley faces a murder charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Prosecutors have presented a circumstantial case with no murder weapon ever found, no confession from Holley and no eyewitnesses to the crime. Holley is accused of bludgeoning McDonald, his ex-girlfriend, to death in her car in March of 2003.
While deliberating on Friday, the jury sent Judge Kim a note at 10 a.m. requesting to hear any statements clarifying who was connected to Bruce Watson’s cell phone and any testimony defining what likelihood ratios (LRs) are. Watson was a friend of McDonald’s former boyfriend, Paulie Simpson, with whom she had a tumultuous relationship.
Simpson testified in the first trial that he avoided McDonald’s wake and funeral because people were “blaming me for her death.” Simpson, who was considered a suspect early in the State Police’s investigation of McDonald’s murder, was not called as a witness by the prosecution during the retrial.
According to the National Institute of Justice, a DNA likelihood ratio is a forensic statistic that measures the strength of evidence by comparing two competing hypotheses: the prosecution’s (the suspect is the source) and the defense’s (an unknown person is the source).
The jury has sent Judge Kim approximately 25 notes requesting read-backs of additional testimony since deliberations began on Feb. 28.
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