April 25,
2007
SHE wanted her husband dead so that she could be with her boss and
lover.
So Melanie McGuire (right), a 34-year-old nurse, killed her husband
MrWilliam McGuire, hacked up his body and dumped the parts into
Chesapeake Bay using three matching suitcases.
Yesterday, she was convicted of murder, desecration of a corpse,
perjury and a weapons offence and faces 30 years in jail.
During the six-week trial, prosecutors said McGuire, 34, organised
the 2004 murder using her expertise as a nurse.
They said that Internet searches on topics such as 'undetectable
poisons' and 'ways to kill people' were made in the couple's
home.
Assistant attorney general Patricia Prezioso told jurors McGuire
forged a prescription for a powerful sedative, chloral hydrate,
using the name of a patient from her clinic on 28Apr 2004, the day
her husband disappeared.
Two days before her husband was last seen alive, McGuire bought a
gun and bullets that matched those in her husband's body.
The verdict from the jury of nine women and three men came after
about 13 hours of deliberations over four days.
McGuire's attorney, Mr Joseph Tacopina, had argued that the petite
nurse was physically incapable of killing her 190cm-tall, 95kg
husband and it would have been impossible to do so without
neighbours hearing something or leaving behind some physical
evidence.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
The prosecutor acknowledged that there were some unanswered
questions, but said there was still 'overwhelming' evidence to
convict the mother of two.
The defence portrayed Mr McGuire as a man with gambling debts who
might have been killed by a creditor.
The guilty nurse, who sobbed as she heard the verdict, was
acquitted on two counts of hindering prosecution and falsifying
evidence.
The defence said that they will be appealing the decision.