MacDonald’s Plea for New Trial Is Denied

A federal judge Friday denied a request by Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald for a new trial in the 1970 slayings of his pregnant wife and two young daughters.

U.S. District Judge Franklin Dupree wrote that new evidence presented by MacDonald’s lawyers amounted to “a factual charade” and that another jury would also conclude “he was responsible for these horrible crimes.”

MacDonald has maintained that four drug-crazed intruders killed his family and attacked him, and his attorneys said during a January hearing that he deserved a new trial because two “repugnant” women admitted killing the former Green Beret captain’s family.

Claims Called ‘Bizarre’

But a prosecutor said that the “bizarre” claims were beyond belief.

MacDonald, who is serving three life sentences, was convicted in 1979 of murdering his wife, Colette, and daughters, Kimberly and Kristen, at their Ft. Bragg apartment.

MacDonald said recently that if Dupree denied the request, his attorneys would appeal the ruling with the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

Brian O’Neill, a Los Angeles lawyer, told Dupree during the hearing that two women who were admitted drug users confessed to taking part in the slayings and had implicated others in the crime.

One of them, Cathy Perry Williams, confessed the day before “Fatal Vision,” a TV miniseries based on a book about the case, was aired in November. The other, Helena Stoeckley Davis, confessed and recanted several times before dying of pneumonia in 1983.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian Murtagh said that the confessions do not disprove the evidence on which a jury convicted MacDonald. He added that Williams’ statement conflicted with physical evidence.