NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — A half-dozen witnesses described Melanie McGuire, a nurse accused of the grisly murder of her husband, as an exceptionally caring and compassionate person.

The character witnesses, summoned Tuesday by McGuire's defense team, included neighbors who said she selflessly helped them care for an adult daughter with multiple sclerosis and a college friend who credited McGuire's kindness for his recovery from a suicide attempt.

"She saved my life," the classmate, Anthony Sclafani, told jurors. He added, "She is the best person I've ever known."

Though defense attorneys were not permitted to ask the witnesses whether they believe allegations that McGuire shot and dismembered her husband, their glowing accounts of her personality left little doubt they did not.

Wendy Edwards, who struck up a friendship with McGuire 11 years ago after meeting her as a hospital patient, was asked if the charges, which include first-degree murder and desecration of human remains, changed her opinion of the defendant's character.

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"Not one bit," Edwards said with an emphatic shake of her head.

Allison LiCalsi, a friend for 20 years, began to weep after she was asked about McGuire's character.

"I love her," LiCalsi said, her voice cracking. "She is one of the sweetest people I know." (VIDEO)

She said that, as recently as last week, she had phoned McGuire for advice on how to treat her daughter's fever.

McGuire, 34, worked in a fertility clinic until she was arrested for the murder of William McGuire, her husband of five years and the father of her two sons. She had been having a long-term affair with her physician boss.

Lorraine Blake, who lives in a retirement community with the defendant's parents, said that McGuire volunteered to come to her home three times a week to help her administer injections to her 28-year-old daughter, Melissa, who suffers from multiple sclerosis.

"Melanie is the sweetest, kindest, most generous, darling girl you'd ever want to meet," Blake said.

Her husband, Richard, and daughter also testified. Melissa Blake, who uses a wheelchair, called McGuire "a beautiful person on the inside and the out."

"She is a wonderful person," she said. "She is one of my best friends."

Assistant Attorney General Patricia Prezioso vigorously cross-examined three of the witnesses, suggesting they did not really know McGuire or were exaggerating her qualities.

Sclafani, an attorney, acknowledged that he and McGuire had fallen out of touch by 2004, when her husband, William, was murdered. He rekindled the friendship only after reading about her indictment the following year, he said.