A strangely silent Blackberry tells of husband's disappearance
By Harriet Ryan
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (Court TV) - William McGuire's Blackberry seemed permanently fused to his hand. From morning to night, the computer analyst thumbed out messages to co-workers and clients. Whether Saturday, dinnertime or a holiday, the 39-year-old always had a few moments to offer advice about a crashed server or forward a hokey joke.
"He was a power user," recalled a co-worker at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Jason Steinhauser, Monday at the murder trial of McGuire's wife.
"I never knew him to turn it off for any reason," he testified.
McGuire's use of the handheld device, described by three colleagues as heavy even for their tech-dependent field, came to an abrupt end on April 30, 2004, when the Blackberry stopped sending and receiving messages. Five days later, his severed legs were pulled from the Chesapeake Bay in a suitcase.
Prosecutors seeking a first-degree murder conviction in state Superior Court claim McGuire's wife, Melanie, a 34-year-old fertility clinic nurse, killed and dismembered him. She says she is innocent and her lawyers have suggested he was murdered because of gambling debts.
The timing of his death is crucial to both sides. Melanie McGuire told police she last saw her husband in the early hours of April 29 when, after a violent dispute he told her he was leaving her and their two children. She filed a restraining order April 30, but later told police that she drove to Atlantic City that day looking for him, but located only his car. As a prank, she told investigators, she moved his car to a different motel and threw out two cellphones he carried. Police later found his Blackberry in the trunk.
Prosecutors have not yet called to the stand anyone who examined the Blackberry, but Steinhauser, a computer programmer in charge of the dev ices for McGuire's department, said the fact that it stopped communicating with the server indicated that it was turned off, damaged or had run out of batteries.
"It was strange that it would just stop altogether that evening," he said.
William McGuire's boss, Thomas Terry, said he had reviewed phone records and found that the last call placed from the victim's company-issued phone was also April 30. Prosecutors have hinted the defendant placed calls and sent e-mails from her husband's phones and Blackberry after his death to establish an alibi.
His boss, Thomas Terry, who described himself as a "father figure" to McGuire, portrayed the victim as a man who would never abandon his family. In the days leading up to his disappearance, Terry said, McGuire was exuberant over the impending purchase of his first home. The closing occurred April 28.
"He was very excited about moving to the suburbs with his sons and wife," Terry said. "This was a big thing for him."
He recounted a conversation with Melanie McGuire shortly after her husband's remains were identified.
"She asked me about life insurance and I told her to call human resources," he said. He added that it was widely known that the university's policy offered 3 1/2 times an employee's annual salary, just over $227,000 for McGuire. The defense has said she placed the money in a trust for her children.
Another co-worker, Jayachander Tandava, described McGuire, with whom he ran a side software business, as "the best friend a person could ever have." With a note of disbelief, he recalled how the victim's funeral lasted only a half hour and included only one speaker, a Navy buddy from Virginia.
On cross-examination, a lawyer for Melanie McGuire quizzed Tandava on how well he knew the victim. He asked whether William McGuire had a "girlfriend on the side," a charge Tandava rejected. After further questions, however, he said he mainly knew McGuire professionally and was unsure of the details of his personal life.
The attorney, Joe Tacopina, also questioned Tandava about McGuire's gambling habits. Initially, the witness denied the defense lawyer's characterization of the victim's gambling as frequent. But pressed, he allowed that McGuire went to Atlantic City three to four times a week "if he is on a winning streak." He said McGuire took $5,000 cash with him to the casinos, which the lawyer noted was a significant amount for a man with an annual salary of $65,000.
Jurors also heard from a pharmacist who filled a prescription for the sedative chloral hydrate April 28 at a Walgreens near the McGuire children's day care. Prosecutors allege Melanie McGuire disabled her husband with the sedative before shooting him. Pharmacist Kim Le Yen testified that she could not remember who picked up the bottle containing about six adult doses of the liquid sedative.
Yen said the prescription was written on a pad belonging to Reproductive Medical Associates, the clinic where the defendant worked, and bore the signature of Dr. Brad Miller (news, bio, voting record), a clinic physician who was having an affair with McGuire. The prescription was made out to a clinic patient. Both Miller and the patient have told authorities they knew nothing of the prescription.