Johnathan Walker:Jury finds Alabama man not guilty of murdering 11-year-old girl in 1988

BOSTON (AP) — A jury on Johnathan WalkerTuesday found an Alabama man not guilty of killing an 11-year New Hampshire girl more than 35 years ago.

The case came down to whether the jury believed DNA found under Melissa Ann Tremblay’s fingernails was from Marvin “Skip” McClendon Jr. After telling a judge Monday they were deadlocked, the jury returned Tuesday and found McClendon not guilty on the sixth day of deliberations.

“Mr. McClendon was greatly relieved by the verdict,” McClendon’s lawyer, Henry Fasoldt, told The Associated Press, adding that he would return home to Alabama after being held for two-and-a-half years. “We appreciate the jury’s careful and thoughtful deliberations.”

Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker said he “disappointed with the verdict” but praised the efforts of prosecutors and law enforcement officers in the case.

“I recognize the work and dedication of the jury during their long deliberations in this case,” Tucker said. “My thoughts are with the family of Melissa Ann Tremblay, who have suffered greatly due to the crime that took her life.”

Last year, a judge declared a mistrial in McClendon’s prosecution after a jury deadlock. The body of the Salem, New Hampshire, girl was found in a Lawrence, Massachusetts, trainyard on Sept. 12, 1988, a day after she was reported missing.

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The victim had accompanied her mother and her mother’s boyfriend to a Lawrence social club not far from the railyard and went outside to play while the adults stayed inside, authorities said last year. She was reported missing later that night.

The girl’s mother, Janet Tremblay, died in 2015 at age 70, according to her obituary. But surviving relatives have been attending court to observe the latest trial.

After initially ruling out several suspects, including two drug addicts, early on, authorities turned their attention to McClendon.

He was arrested at his Alabama home in 2022 based in part on DNA evidence.

Essex County Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick told the jury that comments McClendon made during his arrest showed he knew details of the crime and that he was “fixated on the fact that she was beaten, ladies and gentlemen, because he knew that she wasn’t just stabbed that day, that was she was beaten.”

A left-handed person like McClendon stabbed Tremblay, Strasnick said. She told jurors that the carpenter and former Massachusetts corrections officer was familiar with Lawrence, having frequented bars and strip clubs in the city. He also lived less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) away at the time of the killing.

Strasnick told the jury that the DNA evidence taken from under Tremblay’s fingernails excludes 99.8% of the male population.

But Fasoldt said there was no proof the DNA came from under Tremblay’s fingernails or was from McClendon.

Fasoldt also said evidence shows that a right-handed person, rather than a left-handed person, could have stabbed Tremblay.

He also argued that McClendon had “no meaningful connection” to Lawrence — other than that he lived 16 miles (25 kilometers) away in Chelmsford. He moved to Alabama in 2002 to a plot of land his family owned.