7/19 - Nick McGuffin guilty of manslaughter in the death of Leah Freeman/ Nicholas McGuffin sentenced to 10 years/ Judge will hear McGuffin's motion on 9/9/2011/BREAKING NEWS: JUDGE WILL NOT ALLOW A NEW TRIAL!!!!!

COQUILLE -- 'It's amazing what you can get away with in Coos County," Nick McGuffin allegedly told Leah Freeman's cousin in 2003.
Melissa Beebe, Freeman's cousin, testified at McGuffin's murder trial on Wednesday. She said his comment infuriated her.
Whether the comment was a joke or an admission of guilt is up to the jury to decide.
Several prosecution witnesses Wednesday said McGuffin either alluded to or admitted killing Freeman. District Attorney R. Paul Frasier said he expects to close his case this morning.
Freeman went missing from the streets of Coquille sometime after 9 p.m. on June 28, 2000. Police found her severely decomposed body on Aug. 3, 2000, down an embankment off Lee Valley Road.
McGuffin's alleged words, repeated by the witnesses who knew him, had tempers flaring in the courtroom Wednesday.
Strangled
'He said, 'I strangled that bitch and I'll strangle you too,'" Michael Breakfield said. It was 2002, and then-16 year old Breakfield was dating a girl who recently had been McGuffin's girlfriend, Breakfield testified.
'He said, 'I killed before and I'll kill again.'"
Breakfield didn't tell anyone about the threat until police interviewed him in 2010.
McGuffin's lawyer, Robert McCrea, said Breakfield's delay in telling the story was odd. He asked Breakfield whether McGuffin's incarceration now could help Breakfield win the affections of that same ex-girlfriend, and whether he had seen reward posters offering $10,000 for anyone with information that lead to an arrest.
Breakfield denied both suggestions.
'I can see her laying there'
In mid-September 2002, McGuffin shared a jail cell with Richard Bryant for about a week.
One day, McGuffin became very emotional, Bryant testified.
'He said he could picture her laying there, with her head sitting on a rock, 'and I couldn't do anything about it,'" Bryant said.
This was the first time Bryant had mentioned anything about a rock, McCrea pointed out.
Dennis Scott Hamilton also testified Tuesday that McGuffin drove him to the Lee Valley Road site shortly after police found the body. McGuffin, staring over the ledge, told Hamilton he could picture Freeman lying with her head on a rock, and there was 'nothing he could do," Hamilton said.
Several police officers who interviewed McGuffin before authorities located Freeman's body testified on Tuesday. They said McGuffin told them he thought Freeman might have fallen and hit her head on a rock while walking by the Coquille River.
Decoy shoe
The day police found Freeman's second shoe, discarded along Hudson Ridge, McGuffin and his older brother Wayne McGuffin were at a house with then-18-year-old Kristen Young.
A news report about the shoe came on the television, Young testified.
'Wayne McGuffin said, 'Oh, they won't find anything from that shoe, it was put there to make them think she was up there,'" Young said.
Nick McGuffin nodded and snickered, she said.
Shaun McCrea, McGuffin's other lawyer, pointed out that Wednesday's testimony was the first time Young ever indicated Nick McGuffin agreed with his older brother's comment.
Lee Valley Road
Kimberly Pugmire, known in those days as Kimberly Courtright, saw Nick McGuffin three or four days after Freeman's June 2000 disappearance. He was in the Fast Mart parking lot, a popular teen hangout, she said.
Pugmire is Freeman's older cousin and knew McGuffin well. So it was no surprise that McGuffin came to talk to her.
'He said, 'Kim, you know I had nothing to do with this,'" Pugmire testified.
She said she believed him.
Pugmire and two friends left for Myrtle Point after the conversation, taking Fairview Road. She saw McGuffin pass their car in a red car with two other men she did not recognize.
A little later, Pugmire and her friends ended up on Lee Valley Road. She saw McGuffin and the two men from the red car standing in a gravel turnoff. She drove away without speaking to them, she said.


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This puts him in the location of Leah's body BEFORE she was ever found!!! I wonder who those two other men were? Could that have been when that Hamilton Guy was out there with NM and he was saying he could almost see her laying down there with her head on a ROCK! This could also prove the Cell mates story as well!!! JMO!!!

I think NM's days are numbered. I DO think the jury w/come back with a Guilty verdict!!

COQUILLE -- Leah Freeman's body had been rolled down a steep embankment off Lee Valley Road.
The medical examiner could tell. One arm was over her chest and the other under her back when police found her.
She lay on her back, mouth open, blond hair fanned out around her face.
The summer of 2000 was hot, and 15-year-old Freeman had been left outside for more than a month.
Her right foot was up in the air, bright red and mummified. Almost everything else had decomposed.
'She had basically melted inside her clothes," Kathy Wilcox, a retired criminalist with the Oregon State Police, testified.
Wilcox, the forensic scientist who examined almost all the Freeman case evidence in 2000, and Kris Karcher, the chief deputy medical examiner for Coos County, testified at Nick McGuffin's murder trial Wednesday.
Freeman went missing from Coquille the night of June 28, 2000. Officer Tony Wetmore found her body on Aug. 3, 2000. He was out with some other searchers checking Lee Valley Road and the nearby creek.
'I caught the unmistakable but fleeting odor of decomposition," Wetmore testified.
Wetmore, who was walking along a creek, headed toward the road to investigate.
As he neared the road, which was up a steep embankment, he entered an area littered with garbage from passing motorists.
He spotted Freeman's face.
'I called out, probably quite frantically, for Detective Mitts," Wetmore said.
Neither the criminalist nor the medical examiner could determine much from Freeman's remains.
Wilcox found no trace evidence from her clothing. Any small amount of bodily fluid left by her killer would have been overwhelmed by her own fluids as she decomposed, she testified.
'The clothing was really deteriorated," Wilcox said. She had to examine the clothes beneath a large vent because the smell was so strong.
Wilcox said she does not believe Freeman died from a gunshot or stabbing, because even with the severity of deterioration, large blood stains should have been visible in Freeman's clothing.
There were many holes in Freeman's white tank top, sports bra and jeans, Wilcox said. None of them, she determined, was caused by a knife or bullet.
But Karcher testified another laboratory that examined the clothing said a shooting or stabbing could not be ruled out.
The defense intends to call an expert witness who also examined Freeman's clothing. He will testify that a hole in the tank top and one in the bra were made by a knife wound.
The clothing was also sent to Microtrace, a private lab that finds and identifies small particles. Microtrace found several hairs and a gray paint chip on Freeman's shirt. The paint chip did not match paint on either McGuffin's Mustang or his parents' Thunderbird.
Freeman's autopsy also was futile. All her internal organs, including most of her skin except some hardened portions, had decomposed.
Karcher found no fractures or nicks on Freeman's bones to indicate a shooting, stabbing or beating.
A broken hyoid bone would indicate strangulation, but the bone was sound. That doesn't mean she wasn't strangled, Karcher said. There are several ways a person can be strangled and not break that bone.
Wilcox found blood spatter on the bottom of Freeman's left shoe, found on Hudson Ridge.
This type of blood spatter indicates velocity caused by some kind of force. Such force could include a gunshot wound; a blow struck after the victim was already bloody; or a bloody cough.


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This article was hard for me to read

mommyof3kids wrote: This article was hard for me to read

This morning, the prosecution called its final witness in the murder trial of Nick McGuffin — the medical examiner who performed Leah Freeman's autopsy.
Dr. James Olson testified that because of the decomposition of Freeman's body, he had been unable to determine Freeman's cause of death. He had characterized it as homicidal violence of an undetermined cause.
Defense attorney Robert McCrea summed up Olson's testimony by saying, "You did the best you could with what you had, but in the end, you just can't tell us what happened to her."
McGuffin's defense team was scheduled to call its first witness at 1:30.


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McGuffins, damn you all!!!!!

This has to be heartbreaking for Cory to hear. But hold on Cory. Once the trial is over and the guilty is charged you will once again find your peace.

This is your journey. Look to the light kiddo.

Hold on!

Oh Laga! You crack me up Lady!!

by laga Today at 2:27 pm

McGuffins, damn you all!!!!!

I wonder where Prayerbone is?

He's on my Facebook wall! No Lie though! I will tell him to come over here when he wakes up in the morning! LOL He just said Goodnite!

Nick McGuffin's defense lawyers opened their case this afternoon with testimony from a private forensic consultant who did a secondary examination of Leah Freeman's clothing.
Ken Meneely testified he found two cuts — one in Freeman's tank top, the other in her sport's bra — that were made with a sharp object, most likely a knife.
Based on this finding, he said he believes Freeman was stabbed.
The cross examination became heated. District Attorney R. Paul Frasier asked if Meneely was trying to hide this from prosecution by writing a vague report.
Frasier criticized other aspects of Meneely's testimony.


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mommyof3kids wrote:He's on my Facebook wall! No Lie though! I will tell him to come over here when he wakes up in the morning! LOL He just said Goodnite!

I wonder if he knows that Nick is on trial now?

Yes he does, we have been talking about the trial, well I update him and send him links to the articles. I told him to stop by and at least say Hello

mommyof3kids wrote:Nick McGuffin's defense lawyers opened their case this afternoon with testimony from a private forensic consultant who did a secondary examination of Leah Freeman's clothing.
Ken Meneely testified he found two cuts — one in Freeman's tank top, the other in her sport's bra — that were made with a sharp object, most likely a knife.
Based on this finding, he said he believes Freeman was stabbed.
The cross examination became heated. District Attorney R. Paul Frasier asked if Meneely was trying to hide this from prosecution by writing a vague report.
Frasier criticized other aspects of Meneely's testimony.


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I am confused, why is this a defense for mcguffin...is it in evidence that he lacks the ability to stab someone?

I hope frasier reminds this jury that they don't have to know WHY, WHERE, WHEN or HOW, just that he did in fact murder her and dispose of her body.

Hearing all the witness testimony makes me so angry that there is a statute of limitations on certain crimes. I would like to see them all put somewhere, and it ain't "paradise".

Wrapitup wrote:I think NM's days are numbered. I DO think the jury w/come back with a Guilty verdict!!

From your lips to Gods ears!

That must have been SO damned hard for our Cory..to have to hear about her beautiful Leah like that. I feel so much empathy for her. Really, there are no words.

I hope and pray Cory is doing okay. The testimony about Leah body had to be extremely difficult.

I know LM! I could barely read that article, let alone hear it play out in a court room, and I am not even Leah's family! Cory, you are in our thoughts and prayers here! We love you and we all love your precious Leah like she is our own!

I really appreciate the help with the media articles. Thanks you.

COQUILLE, ORE. - Because the body of Leah Freeman was so badly decomposed, the medical examiners and forensic scientists who examined her remains, are still inconclusive about her cause of death.
MULTIMEDIA
WATCH THE VIDEO
They do all seem to agree, however, that her death was the result of some sort of homicide.
With the prosecution wrapping up it's case just before the lunch break Thursday afternoon, a medical examiner and forensic expert took to the stand to explain their findings.
During questioning, Jim Pex, who's testified as a forensic expert in criminal cases across the United States, says it's hard to determine whether the body of Freeman was rolled down an embankment and left on the side of Lee Valley Road, or if she was killed there.
"That isn't always easy to establish. The one thing that I notice right away is that her legs are crossed and that is often an indication that someone has been rolled over. Whether rolled over going down an embankment or rolled over on the side, I don't know," explains Pex.
Medical Examiner James Olson says Freeman's body was almost completely skeletonized and there were no usable internal organs left to evaluate.
He could not determine a cause of death due to decomposition but felt most comfortable describing it as homicidal violence of an undetermined type.
"I chose to call it homicidal violence of an undetermined type because of the circumstances. In other words, finding other items of her apparel, one of which had blood on it. You basically have the disappearance of this healthy, young woman and she's dumped. There's no question, she's dumped in an area that was probably intended, hopefully to conceal her remains, perhaps indefinitely," says Olson.
A portion of Freeman's calf muscle, which was the most in tact part of her remains, was sent off to a lab and tested for drugs; that drug screen came back negative. :pale:
KCBY News will be back in court Friday morning to hear the case from Nick McGuffin's defense team as they begin their first full day of testimony.

It's so weird. I live in Oregon and I haven't heard anything about the trial in the news. I had never heard of Leah Freeman before finding this site

COQUILLE — Nick McGuffin may take the stand in his own defense Friday afternoon.
Lawyers defending McGuffin on a murder charge in the 2000 death of Leah Freeman asked Judge Richard Barron Friday morning for more time to meet with McGuffin before deciding whether he should testify. They said they had tried to meet with McGuffin in the Coos County jail Sunday, but jail staff had denied them access to him.
The lawyers, Robert and Shaun McCrea, asked Barron to let them postpone their decision till Monday. But Barron told them to meet with McGuffin Friday afternoon and make their decision.
McGuffin's mother, Kathy McGuffin, may also take the stand Friday afternoon.
The trial will resume at 10:15 a.m. Friday with forensic scientists for both the prosecution and defense scheduled to testify.
Read more in Saturday's World.


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COQUILLE - Was she strangled or stabbed?
Forensic scientists for the prosecution and the defense duked it out on the witness stand Thursday, during the seventh day of Nick McGuffin's murder trial.
The prosecution contends McGuffin strangled 15-year-old Leah Freeman 11 years ago. The defense argues she was stabbed by someone else. Two forensic scientists were expected to be re-called to the stand today to contradict each other's testimony.
Freeman went missing from Coquille on June 28, 2000. Her body was discovered 37 days later, dumped off Lee Valley Road.
Police immediately suspected Freeman's then-18-year-old boyfriend, McGuffin, but he was not charged with murder until 2010.
Medical Examiner Dr. James Olson ruled Freeman's cause of death to be homicidal violence of an undetermined cause. Her bones had no nicks or fractures, and all her organs had decomposed.
"You did the best you could with what you had, but in the end, you just can't tell us what happened to her," McGuffin's lawyer Robert McCrea asked Olson on cross-examination. Olson agreed.
Neither the Oregon State Police Coos Bay Crime Lab nor another, more advanced, lab in England could find any trace evidence or holes in her clothing to suggest a bullet wound or stabbing, although neither could be ruled out.
But a private forensic consultant hired by the defense said he found something the other investigators had missed: a hole in Freeman's tank top and one in her sports bra, made by a knife.
"You had to get close, in microscopic conditions, to get these edges," Ken Meneely said.
Meneely described for the jury how scientists determine whether a hole in clothing was made by a knife, rather than by insects or animals. Holes made by insects or animals generally have frayed edges. A knife hole is sharp and defined.
Meneely said he found a 1.5-centimeter hole with sharp edges in both Freeman's tank top and her bra. The two holes don't exactly line up, but they are close together. Her tank top could have stretched or moved in a struggle before the stabbing, he said.
Furthermore, the location of the hole shows that Freeman would have been stabbed in the fleshy region below the sternum. Thus no bones would be nicked.
Kathy Wilcox, the Oregon State Police criminalist who initially examined the clothing, testified Wednesday she could not see the sharp edges of a knife hole Meneely described, after looking at his pictures.
The prosecution plans to offer her testimony in rebuttal to Meneely's this afternoon, after which Meneely might be re-called to rebut her rebuttal.
The cause of death argument is significant because police found no blood or trace evidence in either McGuffin's Mustang or his parents' Thunderbird.
If Freeman was stabbed, it is likely forensic scientists would have found blood in the car used to transport her, Meneely said.
No blood stains were found on Freeman's clothing to indicate a stab wound. But Olson and Meneely both said a stabbed person does not always bleed profusely. Sometimes the person only bleeds internally, especially if he or she does not move, the two witnesses agreed.
"If she didn't bleed - thus no blood - there wouldn't be any blood to transfer to a car, would there?" District Attorney R. Paul Frasier fired back at Meneely during cross examination.
But even if there had been blood on the shirt, other bodily fluids may have obliterated the blood stain as Freeman's body decomposed, according to the England lab's report.
The prosecution asserts the cause of death is strangulation, because no other cause could be determined, and a witness Wednesday said McGuffin admitted to strangling "that bitch." McGuffin didn't specify whom he was describing, the witness said.
A broken hyoid bone - a bone in the neck that secures surrounding tissues - is a common sign of strangulation. Freeman's hyoid bone was sound.
But the bone does not always break, Olson testified Thursday. In fact, the hyoid bone is in three pieces during childhood and does not fuse until the early 20s. Freeman's hyoid bone would have been flexible and therefore more difficult to break, Olson testified.
The blood spatter found on the Freeman's left shoe, which was found on Hudson Ridge, supports either cause of death theory. Whether stabbed or strangled, she could have transferred blood onto the bottom of the shoe.
The question for the jury is, was Freeman transported in McGuffin's car? Police found no trace evidence of her being there, Meneely said.
"But she was seen in that car the day she disappeared," Frasier said on cross-examination. "Would it be reasonable to say that nothing of her was found in the car because that car was cleaned out before it was searched?"
Forensics is not an exact science, Meneely answered.


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"But she was seen in that car the day she disappeared," Frasier said on cross-examination. "Would it be reasonable to say that nothing of her was found in the car because that car was cleaned out before it was searched?"

BINGO!!!

The Nick McGuffin murder trial has recessed until Monday, July 18. McGuffin will take the day to decide if he wants to take the stand in his own defense. Court will resume at 9 a.m. Monday. Closing arguments could begin Monday afternoon.

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Nick McGuffin may take the stand in his own defense Friday afternoon.
Lawyers defending McGuffin on a murder charge in the 2000 death of Leah Freeman asked Judge Richard Barron Friday morning for more time to meet with McGuffin before deciding whether he should testify. They said they had tried to meet with McGuffin in the Coos County jail Sunday, but jail staff had denied them access to him.
The lawyers, Robert and Shaun McCrea, asked Barron to let them postpone their decision till Monday. But Barron told them to meet with McGuffin Friday afternoon and make their decision.
McGuffin's mother, Kathy McGuffin, may also take the stand Friday afternoon.
The trial will resume at 10:15 a.m. Friday with forensic scientists for both the prosecution and defense scheduled to testify.
Read more in Saturday's World.

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mommyof3kids wrote:

"But she was seen in that car the day she disappeared," Frasier said on cross-examination. "Would it be reasonable to say that nothing of her was found in the car because that car was cleaned out before it was searched?"

BINGO!!!

It would be hard to find evidence when the trunk was completely clean and empty including the truck liner. To much time went by before LE took the car in to process. Has the bon fire the McGuffin had a few days after Leah disappeared been brought up at all?

I am thinking of you tonight sweet Leah. I see the words flashing on this picture in the slide show on the home page.
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COQUILLE, Ore. -- Nicholas McGuffin's attorneys went through their set of witnesses fairly quickly Friday. One of the first to take the stand was the former owner of McGuffin's car.

"The trunk was empty when I had it," says Mark Perry.

Mark Perry's answer is an important one for the defense. Forensic scientists who examined the blue Mustang Perry owned and then sold to McGuffin, questioned why the trunk was empty.

They'd tested it for blood, fibers or any evidence but came up with nothing.

The defendant's car has been a key piece of evidence for the prosecution during the trial.

They are suggesting McGuffin used it to transport the body of his murdered girlfriend, Leah Freeman.

The defense also called its own forensic scientist. Ken Meneely says when he examined Leah's clothes and shoes he found cut marks in her tank top and sports bra.

Meneely says prior experts including the medical examiner, as well as a lab in England and another forensic scientist just didn't look closely enough.

"The question is, did doctor Olson get it wrong?" asked Fraiser.

"Apparently he did not see stab marks so it would equate to getting it wrong," say Meneely.

"So all these people missed and you're the only one that caught it?" asked Fraiser.

The judge excused the jury early for the day to talk to the prosecution and the defense about next week.

There's no word yet if McGuffin will testify. The judge says closing arguments could be done as early as next Tuesday.

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A trial expected to last three weeks is moving along much faster than anyone anticipated, with the Judge telling the jury on Friday that they could get the case by Tuesday, July 19th.
The Defense began to present their case on Thursday afternoon, with Friday expected to be their first full day before Judge Richard Barron. But, the day ended before lunch, with the jury being excused for the weekend before 11:00 a.m.
The Defense began their day by calling some former investigator's who had written reports of their contact with prosecution witness Scott Hamilton from 2000, in an effort to discredit his testimony.
They also called a couple of friends of McGuffin's, who testified to having seen McGuffin the night his girlfriend, Leah Freeman, went missing. Questions centered on the timeline and his state of mind.
Margaret Buehner, who was also a friend of Leah's sister Denice, said she saw McGuffin often after Freeman went missing and he was obviously distraught. "He was just upset the whole time, I mean, he seemed concerned about his missing girlfriend."
Another Defense witness had no apparent connection with either the victim or the Defendant, other than the fact that he had at one time owned the Ford Mustang that McGuffin drove.
The prosecution had noted how the trunk appeared to be too clean, without even a liner. But Mark Perry, who owned the vehicle about 3 to 5 years earlier, said the trunk did not have a liner, spare tire, or tire jack, even when he owned it.
He did concede to District Attorney Paul Frasier, on cross-examination, that he did not know what the trunk looked like in 2000.
Late in the morning, the Defense re-called their own Forensic expert. Ken Meneely had testified that he found, through microscopic search, knife holes in Leah's clothes. Which is something that three different Prosecution witnesses had testified were not present.
That led to sharp question and answer session between Meneely and District Attorney Paul Frasier, where Meneely testified the he felt the Prosecution witnesses were wrong. To which Frasier replied, "all these people missed it and you're the only one that caught it?"
The day came to a sudden conclusion when the Defense requested more time to decide whether or not to call Nick McGuffin as a witness in his own defense.
Judge Barron was displeased that they had not already been prepared to make that decision, but Attorney Shaun McCrea argued that she had not been able to meet with her client last Sunday because the Jail refused to permit it. She also needed time to review new evidence, phone conversations that McGuffin has had while in jail, which the Prosecution intended to admit into evidence if McGuffin took the stand.
Barron seemed agitated by the delay, and particularly by the Jail's refusal to allow McCrea access to her client, but he reluctantly agreed to recess until Monday morning. Although, he wanted a decision by the end of the day on Friday about whether McGuffin would testify.
Late Friday, a decision was apparently reached. According to the Coos County District Attorney's Office, McGuffin has chosen not to testify. That increases the likelihood, but does not guarantee, that closing arguments could be made on Monday, July 18.

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I've finally got caught up on this thread. Cory, listening to much of this must be brutal and I so feel for you! You have wonderful support from the people on VH that have stayed by your side for so long. I haven't been here for long compared to the others but please know that my thoughts are with you and my prayers go to you.
Reading what these witnesses are testifying to, it sounds like Nick just might have to go live at the big house. I so hope so!
May there be justice for Leah and for you and may you find the peace that you so deserve.

Reading these posts and the way the defense has been going makes me think they have very little and are stalling and holding up court as much as possible to keep breaking up the jurys momentem.

I am not sure what that tactic means but they seem to do it over and over again.

If I was a betting woman I could have bet early on Nick would not take the stand.

Another stall to "consult" with their client. I cannot imagine that a jail would not let an attorney meet with their client the weekend before he goes on trial for murder. That is one I would really like looked into to see if they are telling the truth!

I wonder whats in the jail house calls the defense doesnt want heard?

Thinking of you Cory and praying for your peace!

Charming, that is one of the best songs of all time and I love babyjames! Here is the way I first knew him and fell in love with his music.

It is a great song to send to our Cory!!!!