Alabama Man Found Not Guilty of Murdering 11-Year-Old Girl in 1988
Marvin McClendon Jr.’s initial trial resulted in a mistrial in 2023 due to the jury’s inability to reach a unanimous verdict.
An Alabama man facing charges for the 1988 murder of an 11-year-old girl in Massachusetts was acquitted by jurors in his second trial on Nov. 5.
Marvin McClendon Jr. of Breman, Alabama, was taken into custody in 2022 for the murder of Melissa Ann Tremblay, whose body was discovered in the old Boston and Maine Railway Yard in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on Sept. 12, 1988.
His initial trial ended in a mistrial the previous year when the jury could not come to a unanimous decision.
Tremblay, a Salem, New Hampshire resident, was last seen with her mother and mother’s boyfriend at a social club in Lawrence on Sept. 11, 1988. While the adults remained inside the club, Tremblay went outside to play nearby.
When the adults realized Tremblay was missing, they searched desperately and subsequently reported her disappearance. Tremblay’s lifeless body was found in the railway yard the following day.
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A key aspect of the case revolved around whether the jury believed that DNA found under Tremblay’s fingernails belonged to McClendon.
Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick of Essex County informed the jury that the DNA recovered from under Tremblay’s nails eliminates 99.8% of the male population, indicating that the perpetrator was likely left-handed.
McClendon’s attorney, Henry Fasoldt, contended that there was no concrete evidence linking the DNA to McClendon. Additionally, he argued that the evidence suggested a right-handed individual, not a left-handed person like McClendon, could have committed the crime.
He also asserted that McClendon had very little connection to Lawrence apart from living 16 miles away in Chelmsford and relocating to Alabama in 2002.
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