Posted on: 12:01 pm, October 11, 2012, by Brittany Green-Miner, Meredith Forrest Kulwicki and Tamara Vaifanua
PROVO, Utah – A Utah County doctor will stand trial for allegedly killing his wife in 2007.
The decision was made Thursday during Dr. Martin MacNeill’s preliminary hearing. read more »
Pleasant Grove man showed “evidence of a guilty mind” after woman’s ’07 death.
By Jessica Miller | The Salt Lake Tribune - First Published Oct 11 2012
Provo • There wasn’t any single piece of evidence that made up Judge Samuel McVey’s mind when he ruled that Martin MacNeill, a 56-year-old Pleasant Grove doctor, would stand trial in the 2007 death of his wife.
PROVO — After nearly two hours of argument Thursday morning, Judge Samuel McVey walked into a Provo courtroom and ordered Martin MacNeill to stand trial for murder.
MacNeill, who was shackled and sitting across the room in a jail jumpsuit, cocked his head slightly to the left but otherwise showed no emotion as the judge read the ruling.
The decision means a jury likely will hear the evidence that in August led prosecutors to charge MacNeill with first-degree felony murder and second-degree felony obstruction of justice. The charges stem from allegations that MacNeill killed his wife, Michele, in 2007 a week after pushing her to have plastic surgery.
After delivering his ruling Thursday, McVey provided a lengthy explanation of the case as it had been argued over nearly two weeks of testimony. Among other things, the explanation detailed how MacNeill, a doctor, was having an affair with Gypsy Willis at the time of Michele’s death. McVey went on to single out testimony by Willis and another of MacNeill’s former mistresses as being “inherently incredible.” read more »
Pleasant Grove doctor ordered to stand trial for murder in wife’s 2007 death
By Emiley Morgan, Deseret News - Published: Thursday, Oct. 11 2012
PROVO — After five full days of testimony and a morning of arguments, a judge declared that much of what Martin MacNeill did surrounding his wife’s death showed “evidence of a guilty mind.”
Although the case is largely circumstantial, the judge said a variety of MacNeill’s unusual actions created valid suspicion, such as the way MacNeill offered an emergency room doctor $10,000 to keep working on his clearly dead wife, and how the description of his wife’s body in the bathtub contradicted nearly everyone else who saw her. read more »
A woman who had a year-long affair with a doctor before he allegedly killed his wife has testified that he moved her into his family home just weeks after the murder to be the new nanny.
Gypsy Jyll Willis detailed the clandestine relationship as she took the stand in the fifth day of a preliminary hearing of Martin MacNeill, 56, in Provo, Utah on Wednesday.
As she left the stand, she locked eyes with MacNeill, staring adoringly at him as she walked past.
MacNeill, a former Mormon Sunday school teacher and father of seven is accused of murdering his wife Michele, who was found drowned in the bathtub at their Pleasant Grove, Utah home in 2007.
He is accused of forcing her to have a face lift before giving her a cocktail of lethal drugs, which he claimed would help her recovery. She was found dead eight days later.
Look of love: Gypsy Willis passes Martin MacNeill, a doctor accused of murdering his wife, after testifying against him on Wednesday. They had an affair for more than a year before the death read more »
PROVO — Pleasant Grove doctor Martin MacNeill faced his daughter and a former girlfriend in court Wednesday, as prosecutors presented their case against him in the death of his wife.
Outside the courtroom, close friends of the late Michelle MacNeill said this case has shown them a side of Martin they never knew existed.
Michelle was found dead in her bathtub in April of 2007. Prosecutors say her husband gave her a dangerous combination of drugs shortly after she underwent a plastic surgery procedure.
“He presented to be very much in love with Michelle,” said Michelle’s friend Loreen Thompson.
he “woman” Radmall was referring to is Gypsy Jillian Willis. Martin MacNeill hired her to be the family’s nanny after his wife died. read more »
Posted on: 7:19 pm, October 10, 2012, by Ben Winslow
PROVO — The woman Dr. Martin MacNeill is accused of having an affair with at the time of his wife’s mysterious death testified against him at his preliminary hearing Wednesday.
Gypsy Willis testified about her relationship with him, which began in 2005, about two years before Michelle MacNeill died. She was later hired as the children’s nanny.
“I thought he was wonderful,” Willis told the court during testimony.
Prosecutors say MacNeill killed his wife in 2007 by drugging and then drowning her inside their Pleasant Grove home so he could continue his affair with Willis. Outside the courthouse, she sprinted from reporters and news cameras, refusing to answer questions.
Willis testified as part of a plea bargain to state and federal charges she was facing, prosecutors said. read more »
PROVO — Dr. Joshua Perper testified Wednesday that Michele MacNeill likely died from drowning. Perper, a doctor and author who testified for prosecutors, said that drugs found in Michele’s blood may have contributed to the death, but that he still thought she died in a bathtub in 2007. Perper said he couldn’t determine if the drowning was accidental or “homicidal.”
Prosecutors, however, believe that Michele’s death was intentionally carried out by her husband Martin MacNeill on April 11, 2007. They charged MacNeill with murder in August, and Perper’s testimony was part of a lengthy preliminary hearing that began last week. The hearing was an opportunity for prosecutors to prove they have sufficient evidence to proceed to trial in the case. read more »
PROVO – Just days after Rachel MacNeill’s mother, Michele, died in 2007, her father, Martin MacNeill, asked her to accompany him to the LDS temple in American Fork. He wanted to pray about getting a nanny for the family, Rachel testified Wednesday in court, so she went.
But when Rachel and her father arrived, he suggested participating in initiatory ceremonies — which meant they wouldn’t have a chance to talk about getting a nanny — then later he met her outside where they were confronted by a woman.
According to Rachel, MacNeill asked the woman her name at least three times. Each time, the woman replied that she went by Jillian. After she left, MacNeill suggested they take the woman out to lunch, though Rachel insisted she just wanted to talk about the nanny. Then MacNeill snapped.
“He said ‘Rachel, you’re never going to amount to anything in life. You think everything’s going to be handed to you,’ ” Rachel testified. read more »
Doctor killed wife, prosecutors say, so he could continue extra-marital affair
By Jessica Miller | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Oct 10 2012 01:14 pm
Provo • Gypsy Jyll Willis said she never intended to start a serious relationship with Martin MacNeill.
But that all changed after MacNeill’s wife was found dead in a bathtub at her Pleasant Grove home on April 11, 2007.
Willis said her sexual relationship with MacNeill began in November 2005, while MacNeill was still married.
By Pat Reavy, Deseret News
Published: Wednesday, Oct. 10 2012 7:43 p.m. MDT
PROVO — Giving calm, direct, matter-of-fact answers, the woman who had an affair with a Utah doctor accused of killing his wife, took the witness stand Wednesday.
Gypsy Jyll Willis, who also went by Gypsy Jyllian MacNeill at one point, testified on the fifth day of a preliminary hearing ofMartin MacNeill, 56, who is charged with murder and obstructing justice in the April 2007 death of his wife, 50-year-old Michele MacNeill.
Prosecutors contend MacNeill killed his wife in order to be with Willis. Within weeks of his wife’s death, Willis moved into the MacNeill house as the children’s new nanny.
But Willis said that when she and MacNeill started seeing each other, there was no intention of a long-term relationship. read more »
By Pat Reavy, Deseret News
Published: Tuesday, Oct. 9 2012 6:21 p.m. MDT
PROVO — Dr. Todd Grey admits the pieces of information he had regarding the death of Michele MacNeill didn’t change between 2008 and 2010. But his mindset did.
“My thinking about the case changed,” the veteran Utah state medical examiner conceded from the witness stand Tuesday.
During cross-examination on the fourth day of a preliminary hearing in the murder case of Martin MacNeill, defense attorney Randy Spencer tried to raise the argument that Grey was pressured into changing his opinion about Michele MacNeill’s death so they could file a homicide charge.
But Grey said that was not the case. read more »
Martin MacNeill accused of killing wife to continue affair with another woman.
By Jessica Miller | The Salt Lake Tribune
First Published Oct 09 2012 01:08 pm
“cocktail” of drugs that would have caused loss of consciousness, respiratory depression and coma, according to an expert who testified Tuesday during a preliminary hearing in 4th District Court.
Four drugs were found in Michele MacNeill’s blood after her death in April 2007: oxycodone, promethazine, diazepam and zolpidem, which is also known as Ambien.
October 10, 2012 12:25 am • Jim Dalrymple – Daily Herald
PROVO – Steve Mickelson had worked with Martin MacNeill for seven years when he received a call on April 11 saying there was a problem.
“I had just received a call from Martin,” Mickelson testified Tuesday in court. “Something’s wrong at Martin’s home, and can you come over.”
Mickelson said when he arrived at the home he saw MacNeill’s wife, Michele, on the floor receiving CPR. Mickelson also testified that Michele wasn’t wearing any clothes and that a nearby bathtub was empty.
Michele never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead later that day. Mickelson’s testimony was part of MacNeill’s preliminary hearing, during which prosecutors are attempting to prove they have sufficient evidence to charge him with murder for her death. The hearing began last week and has included testimony from various experts, law enforcement officers and MacNeill family members. read more »
By Brian West and Emiley Morgan, Deseret News
Published: Friday, Oct. 5 2012 7:21 p.m. MDT
PROVO — Alexis Somers always believed she had a very close relationship with her dad.
“I loved my father. I wanted to go into medicine because of my father, partially. I would go with him to work. I was around my father a lot, and I loved him,” she said Friday.
That relationship changed “the day my mother died.”
Over three days of testimony, Somers was one of many witnesses who described suspicious circumstances andMartin MacNeill‘s odd behavior before and after his wife died in a bathtub in April 2007.
But whether the nearly entirely circumstantial evidence is enough for a judge to order him to stand trial for murder remains to be decided. Prosecutors will present at least two more days of testimony next week before Judge Samuel McVey makes that decision.
Somers recalled details Friday about that fateful day and why she immediately suspected the man she loved had murdered her “hero,” “best friend” and mother, Michele MacNeill. read more »
