Jury begins deliberating in trial of Alabama man accused of killing an 11-year-old girl in 1988

On Monday, a jury began deliberating in the trial of an Alabama man accused of beating and stabbing an 11-year-old New Hampshire girl to death more than 35 years ago.

Prosecutors and Marvin “Skip” McClendon Jr.’s defense attorney made their closing arguments Monday in a case that hinged in part on whether the jury believed DNA found under Melissa Ann Tremblay’s fingernails came from McClendon.

This is the second murder trial against McClendon after a judge last year declared a mistrial because the jury was deadlocked.

The Salem, New Hampshire girl’s body was found at a train station in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on September 12, 1988, one day after she was reported missing. He was stabbed in the neck.

Last year, the victim went to a Lawrence social club not far from the railroad station with her mother and her mother’s boyfriend and went outside to play while the adults were inside, authorities said. He was reported missing later that night.

The girl’s mother, Janet Tremblay, died in 2015 at age 70, according to her obituary. However, surviving relatives go to court to observe the final hearing.

After initially eliminating several suspects, including two drug addicts, authorities turned their attention to McClendon.

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

Essex County Deputy District Attorney Jessica Strasnick told the jury that McClendon’s comments during his arrest showed he knew the details of the crime and that he “focused on the fact that ladies and gentlemen because he knew he was being beaten.” “He was stabbed, that is, beaten, that day.”

Strasnick said a left-hander like McClendon stabbed Tremblay. He told jurors that the carpenter and former Massachusetts corrections officer knew Lawrence and frequented bars and strip clubs in the city. He also lived less than 20 miles away at the time of the murder.

“He thought he got away with it after 33 years,” Strasnick said.

“He assumed that if she had her beaten and stabbed body pressed against the wheel of a railway train, it would have looked as if she had been crushed,” he said. “He assumed they wouldn’t investigate. “He assumed he would stay under the radar.”

Strasnick told the jury that DNA evidence taken from under Tremblay’s fingernails did not cover 99.8% of the male population.

“This 11-year-old girl used the last bit of energy she had to fight for her life by scratching and clawing at him,” Strasnick said. “That’s how he managed to get his DNA out from under his fingernails… That’s why, after all these years, his past finally caught up with him.”

But McClendon’s attorney, Henry Fasoldt, said there was no evidence the DNA came from under Tremblay’s fingernails or from McClendon. “Their initial assumption that the DNA came from the killer was a bad assumption,” he said after the court hearing.

Fasoldt also said evidence showed Tremblay may have been stabbed by a right-handed person rather than a left-handed person. He also argued that McClendon had no “meaningful connection” to Lawrence but otherwise lived in Chelmsford, 16 miles (25 kilometers) away. In 2002, he moved to Alabama, to a land his family owned.

“I’m worried. “He is 77 years old and in poor health and has to go through this again,” he said. “I don’t believe he did that.”