Defense attorney after mistrial: State police lied in testimony in trial of Edward Holley
Orange County Court Judge Hyun Chin Kim declaring the mistrial after six days of deliberations.
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The Orange County jury deliberating the murder case against 44-year-old Edward Holley were sent home without reaching a verdict.
The jurors sent a fourth note Wednesday morning to Judge Hyun Chin Kim
Judge Kim - instead of sending them back to continue deliberating - accepted that decision and declared a mistrial, upsetting families of both Holley and the victim, Megan McDonald.
“He was wrongfully accused, wrongfully tried," Holley's attorney Paul Weber said Wednesday just after the mistrial declaration, "and thank God he wasn’t convicted.”
Holley is accused of second-degree murder, and is still facing 15 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors said that in March 2003 Holley hit 21-year-old McDonald with a blunt instrument, breaking bones and caving in her face.
McDonald was found dead near a dumpster on a dirt road in the Town of Wallkill.
Her car was found at a nearby apartment complex with blood on the seats.
Holley's defense team is now petitioning for a bail adjustment, which would allow Holley to live at home awaiting his next trial instead of the Orange County Jail.
“Nobody’s minimizing what happened to Megan," Holley's attorney Paul Weber said. "That was horrible. Whoever did that needs to pay for it, but it’s not Ed Holley.”
Their application for the change Wednesday afternoon was denied by Judge Hyun Chin Kim.
Holley will remain in jail.
He was first arrested in April 2023.
Prosecutors seemed to put much value on DNA samples, indicating Holley was in McDonald's car at some point.
The DNA of other friends of McDonald was also found inside the car, including on a cannabis roach.
State police detectives testified Holley's statements to them about the case over the years had inconsistencies which raised their suspicions.
Prosecutors also relied on testimony from a jail inmate claiming he overheard Holley telling someone else he killed Megan.
“It just appeared to me someone was trying to make a name for themself, Weber said of state police detectives who testified, "and to see them lie on the stand, that makes me even more pissed off.”
Special prosecutor Julia Corbachio said she plans to stay on the case and pursue another trial.
Holley is accused of bludgeoning McDonald, his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend, with a claw hammer in 2003 and then dumping her body in a muddy field off Bowser Road in the Town of Wallkill.
Both sides will return to court May 5 for the first of likely many conferences to set up the next trial.
Full statement from Megan McDonald's family following mistrial:
