'Gangster's' Confession
Prosecutors believe the wisecracking gangster who wrote this letter confessing to the crime was actually McGuire.- 'Set Her Up'
Prosecutors received this letter and list of ways to frame McGuire, which they believe was a ruse to throw blame onto her sister-in-law. - E-mails with Friend
Melanie McGuire e-mailed a nursing school friend, James Finn, about his knowledge of guns before her husband was shot to death. - Friend's Wiretaps
In taped phone calls, James Finn tried to get McGuire to admit involvement in her husband's death. - Lover's Wiretaps
McGuire's boss, Dr. Bradley Miller, secretly recorded two phone conversations with her after testifying before a grand jury. - Allegations of Abuse
Melanie McGuire appeared before a family court judge April 30, 2004, and asked for a restraining order.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Jurors deliberating murder charges against Melanie McGuire asked Wednesday to view e-mails the nurse exchanged with a college friend in the weeks before her husband's slaying.
The request came just an hour after panel of nine women and three men began weighing evidence. They completed their first day of deliberations without reaching a verdict and are to resume their work Thursday morning.
The e-mails the jury requested were offered as evidence by prosecutors during the third week of the trial, when registered nurse James Finn took the stand.
Finn, who acknowledged that he had long been in love with McGuire since their college days, told jurors that she e-mailed him in April 2004 asking if he owned a gun.
In subsequent e-mails and conversations, she told him that her husband was behaving oddly and she was contemplating buying a firearm to protect herself and her two young sons, he said.
Finn testified he gave her advice about getting a permit and choosing a weapon, but said that she told him on several occasions that she was not ready to buy a gun.
In fact, McGuire had driven to Pennsylvania and purchased a revolver on April 26, 2004, two days before her husband, William, was last seen alive.
A year later, when she became the prime suspect in her husband's murder, she admitted the purchase to Finn in a phone call he secretly recorded for authorities. She told him then that she bought the .38-caliber gun at the request of her husband, whose felony conviction prevented him from owning a firearm.
The gun is the same caliber as the murder weapon, which was never found.
State Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa sent copies of the e-mails into the jury room. He also granted their request for a complete list of exhibits admitted during the course of the trial.
McGuire, her parents and several friends waited out the verdict in the hall outside the courtroom. At 4 p.m. when jurors announced that they were leaving for the day, the defendant, who is free on bail, hugged her attorneys and friends.
The 34-year-old faces 30 years to life in prison if convicted. The verdict will be streamed on Court TV Extra.
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