Martin MacNeill, who was convicted in November of killing his wife, was hospitalized Thursday after attempting suicide in jail.
According to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, deputies discovered MacNeill attempting suicide at about 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 5. The deputies intervened, and MacNeill was taken to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and hospitalized. – Full Article
An overwhelming moment at the courthouse last night when the verdict was read.. everything hinging on that moment and hearing the clerk say “Guilty” was very emotional for our family.
Afterward a courtroom down the hall was opened up for us to all to convene. We all clapped and cheered for the investigators and prosecution as they walked in. They asked if we would like to meet the jurors and of course we said yes. It was a very special moment as the the jurors walked in and we were again clapping and cheering. Those 8 individuals saw the impact it had on all of us and how happy we were with their decision and thus finally giving Michele the justice she has deserved. We had the opportunity to talk to them and personally thank them all. Amazing.
Thank you to everyone who worked on this case and supported our family.
(more to come later – just a quick note for now)
PROVO — Family and friends of Michele MacNeill let out a cry as Martin MacNeill was found guilty of murder and obstruction of justice for the death of Michele in April 2007.
Michele’s daughters, Alexis Somers and Rachel MacNeill, cried and hugged as the jury was polled; all eight jurors said their verdict was guilty on each count.
“We are so happy he can’t hurt anyone else,” Somers said. “That courtroom was full of people who loved my mom. I can’t believe this finally happened, we are so grateful.”
Courts » Jury consisting of five men, three women will decide whether Utah doctor killed his wife in 2007
By Jessica miller| The Salt Lake Tribune
Provo • The question of whether Martin MacNeill killed his wife at their Pleasant Grove home six years ago is now in the hands of jurors. After four hours of closing arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys, the jury left the courtroom to begin deliberations at 1:55 p.m. Following 13 days of testimony, Deputy Utah County Attorney Chad Grunander on Friday began his closing argument by telling the 4th District Court jury: “The defendant carried out a cold and calculated plan to murder his wife.”
By Jessica Miller
| The Salt Lake Tribune
According to court documents, the man, identified only as Inmate #1, will tell the 4th District Court jury that Martin MacNeill told him that he drugged his wife with Oxycontin and sleeping pills, then convinced her to get into the bathtub, where he held her underwater for a little while “to help her out.”
By Jessica Miller
| The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Nov 05 2013 07:24 am • Updated 1 hour ago
Provo • Three federal inmates who served time alongside Martin MacNeill testified Tuesday that the man revealed details about how his wife died, but none of the three said the former Pleasant Grove doctor outright admitted to killing her.
“He was like, ‘Nah, I didn’t murder my wife,’ ” testified a man identified only as federal Inmate #3. “ ‘ If I did, they don’t have any evidence.’ ”
As the murder trial for Pleasant Grove doctor Martin MacNeill continues Tuesday, several prison inmates are expected to testify that the defendant revealed details about how his wife died, admitting to at least one that he killed the woman.
The inmates were housed in federal prison with Martin MacNeill while he was serving time for a previous ID fraud conviction.
Prosecutors say the inmates will testify that Martin MacNeill referred to his wife, Michele MacNeill, as a “bitch,” and said that he was glad she was dead.
Provo • How Michele MacNeill ended up dead in her bathtub on April 11, 2007, is somewhat of a mystery — even to medical examiners.
Her husband, former Pleasant Grove doctor Martin MacNeill, is accused of killing her. But neither medical examiners nor medical experts hired to analyze the case have concluded that her manner of death was a homicide.
Two medical experts — paid by prosecutors to testify at Martin MacNeill’s trial — were called to the witness stand Friday to opine about the death.
By Jessica Miller
| The Salt Lake Tribune
Provo • As the murder trial for Martin MacNeill’s continued Tuesday, the alleged “other woman” in his life resumed her testimony on the witness stand.
Martin MacNeill, 57, is on trial for allegedly killing his 50-year-old wife, Michele MacNeill, in April 2007 in order to continue an extra-marital affair with a younger woman.
That woman, now-37-year-old Gypsy Jillian Willis, is required to testify at the murder trial as part of a plea deal in an unrelated identity fraud case.
Prosecutors on Tuesday presented Willis with a number of “pictures messages” she sent to Martin MacNeill the day after his wife died.
October 25, 2013 4:21 pm • By PAUL FOY
The mistress of a Utah doctor accused of murder testified Friday that she started a sexual relationship with him more than a year before his wife’s death.
Gypsy Willis said Martin MacNeill put her up in a duplex, gave her a debit card for expenses, and helped pay for her schooling as a nursing student.
Willis, 37, insisted the relationship with a man 20 years older was mostly casual and is over. Prosecutors have argued it was his motive for killing his wife in 2007. Michele MacNeill was found in a bathtub in her home.
Willis said she met MacNeill online by trading messages and was soon getting together with him at random times.
By Jessica Miller
| The Salt Lake Tribune
Provo • Prosecutors allege Martin MacNeill’s motive to allegedly murder his wife was to continue an affair with his mistress, but the “other woman” testified in court Friday that their relationship wasn’t that serious.
“It was a very casual thing,” Gypsy Jillian Willis testified Friday in Provo’s 4th District Court. “Just when we had time and it could be arranged. We had sex half the time, sometimes it was just lunch.”
Father expressed concern he might be accused of killing his wife, Rachel MacNeill tells the court.
Gypsy Jillian Willis was unlike any other nanny that Rachel MacNeill had ever seen.
She didn’t cook. She didn’t clean.
She didn’t care for the children.
But Willis was still hired — just weeks after Rachel MacNeill’s mother, Michele MacNeill, had died — to care for her younger sisters.
But instead of attending to the small children, Rachel MacNeill, 34, testified on Thursday that Willis’ focus was instead on her father, Martin MacNeill.
“I expected her to be focused on the children, to cook or clean or take care of the children,” Rachel MacNeill testified. “[Instead], my dad was cooking, she was staring at my dad. There was nobody looking after the children.”
A Utah doctor accused of killing his wife offered money to an emergency room physician to keep trying save his wife, the physician testified Wednesday.
“He offered me $10,000 to continue my resuscitation and not quit,” Scott Vanwagoner said during the murder trial of Martin MacNeill.
Vanwagoner said he was already working furiously to revive Michele MacNeill, and the defendant must have known his wife was already dead.
He called MacNeill’s remark “off-the-wall” and the oddest experience of his medical career.
“I’m not sure how to answer that question, or why he would make that offer,” Vanwagoner told a jury in Provo.
It was the latest testimony about MacNeill’s bizarre behavior on the day his wife died.
By Jessica Miller
| The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Oct 22 2013 08:51 am • Last Updated Oct 22 2013 10:04 pm
In the moments after his wife was pulled unconscious from their bathtub, Martin MacNeill’s demeanor was so irregular, several police officers and responding paramedics feared for their safety as they performed CPR on 50-year-old Michele MacNeill on April 11, 2007.
“I was concerned about my safety, actually,” testified Pleasant Grove police Officer Steven Brande, who sat outside the MacNeill’s Pleasant Grove home with Martin MacNeill after MacNeill was asked to leave the bedroom where medics were performing CPR on his wife. “Part of that was the fact there was so much agitation there. I couldn’t predict what his actions were going to be.”