Jeffrey R. MacDonald - Trial and Conviction

Trial and Conviction

A grand jury in North Carolina indicted MacDonald on January 24, 1975 and within the hour MacDonald was arrested in California. On January 31, 1975 he was freed on $100,000 bail pending disposition of the charges. On May 23, 1975, MacDonald was arraigned and pled not guilty to the murders. On July 29, 1975, District Judge Franklin T. Dupree Jr. denied MacDonald's double jeopardy and speedy trial arguments and allowed the trial date of August 18, 1975 to stand. On August 15, 1975, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals stayed the trial and on January 23, 1976, a panel of that court, in a 2–1 split, ordered the indictment dismissed on speedy trial grounds. An appeal on behalf of the Government led to an 8–0 reinstatement of the indictment by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 1, 1978. On October 22, 1978, the Fourth Circuit rejected MacDonald's double jeopardy arguments and, on March 19, 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review that decision.

The trial began on July 16, 1979 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Although MacDonald’s lawyers Bernard Segal and Wade Smith were confident of an acquittal from the first day, one thing after another went badly for the defense. It began when Judge Dupree refused to admit into evidence a psychiatric evaluation of MacDonald, which suggested that someone of his personality type was unable to kill his wife and children. Dupree explained that since no insanity plea had been entered for MacDonald, he did not want the trial bogged down by contradictory psychiatric testimony from prosecution and defense witnesses. Dupree allowed the prosecution to admit into evidence the 1970 copy of Esquire magazine, found in the MacDonald household, part of which contained the lengthy article of the Manson Family murders in August 1969. The government attorneys, James Blackburn and Brian Murtagh, wanted to introduce the magazine and suggest that this is where MacDonald got the idea of blaming a hippie gang for the murders.

Government lab technicians testified that MacDonald’s blue, button-down pajama top had 48 small, smooth and cylindrical ice pick holes through it. In order for this to have happened, the pajama top would need to remain stationary, an unlikely occurrence if MacDonald had wrapped it around his hands to defend himself from the blows from an attacker wielding an ice pick. Also, by folding the pajama top one particular way, the government demonstrated how all 48 tears could have been made by 21 thrusts of the ice pick, the same number of times that Colette MacDonald had been stabbed with the ice pick and in an identical pattern, implying that she had been repeatedly stabbed through the pajama top while it was lying on her. Prosecuting attorneys Murtagh and Blackburn staged an impromptu re-enactment of the alleged attack on MacDonald. Murtagh wrapped a pajama top around his hands and tried to fend off a series of blows that Blackburn was inflicting on him with a similar ice pick. The prosecution made two points to the demonstration. First, the ice pick holes in the pajama top were jagged and torn, not smoothly cylindrical as the holes in MacDonald’s pajama jacket. Also, Murtagh received a small wound on his left hand. When MacDonald had been examined at Womack Hospital, he had no wounds on his arms or hands which were consistent with a struggle. The inference was obvious and highly damaging to the defense.

Another piece of damaging evidence against MacDonald was an audio tape made of the April 6, 1970 interview by military investigators. Listening to this tape, the jury heard MacDonald's matter-of-fact, indifferent recitation of the murders. They heard him become angry, defensive, and emotional in response to suggestions by the investigators that he had committed the murders. He asked the investigators why would they think he, who had a beautiful family and everything going for him, could have murdered his pregnant wife and two daughters in cold blood for no reason. The jury also heard the investigators confront MacDonald with their knowledge of his extramarital affairs, to which MacDonald calmly responded, “Oh... you guys are more thorough than I thought.”

Despite the evidence, the prosecution was hampered by the lack of motive for MacDonald to have committed the murders since he had no history of violence or domestic abuse with his wife or children. Since Judge Dupree refused both the defense and prosecution requests for any psychiatric evaluation to be done for MacDonald, he also refused the prosecution's request to allow into evidence any part of the Article 32 transcripts from MacDonald's 1970 U.S. Army hearing. Dupree ruled that since the current trial was a civilian trial and that the Article 32 military hearing had several reports from the military investigators, which claimed that MacDonald may have murdered his wife and two daughters in a drug-induced rage, it was considered biased and hearsay.

During the defense stage of the trial, Segal called Helena Stoeckley to the witness stand, intent on extracting a confession from her that she had been one of the intruders MacDonald claimed had entered his family's apartment, murdered his family and attacked him. Over the past nine years, Stoeckley had made several contradictory statements regarding the murders, sometimes saying she was involved, other times stating she had no recollection of her whereabouts the evening of the murders. Just prior to her testimony, separate interviews had been conducted by the defense and the prosecution, during which she denied ever being in the MacDonald apartment or ever seeing MacDonald before that very day in court. Afterwards, Segal argued for the introduction of testimony from other witnesses to whom Stoeckley had confessed. Dupree refused, in the absence of any evidence to connect Stoeckley to the scene, and noting her history of long-term drug abuse.

MacDonald's defense called forensic expert James Thornton to the stand. He unsuccessfully tried to rebut the government's contention that the pajama top was stationary on Colette's chest, rather than wrapped around MacDonald's wrists as he warded off blows, by conducting an experiment wherein a similar pajama top was placed over a ham, moved back and forth on a sled, and stabbed at with an ice pick. The defense also called several character witnesses. MacDonald took the witness stand as the last defense witness. Under Segal’s direct examination, MacDonald tearfully denied committing the murders. When Blackburn cross-examined him, however, MacDonald could offer no explanation against the evidence, and was often hostile and combative with the prosecutor.

On August 29, 1979, MacDonald was convicted of one count of first-degree murder in the death of Kristen and two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Colette and Kimberley after the jury deliberated for just over six hours. Dupree immediately gave MacDonald a life sentence for each of the three murders, to be served consecutively. He also revoked MacDonald's bail. Soon after the verdict, MacDonald appealed Dupree's bail revocation ruling, asking that bail be granted pending the outcome of his appeal. On September 7, 1979, this application was rejected, and an appeal on bail was further rejected by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 20, 1979.