The Stranger She Loved

by Shanna Hogan

  * * *

  After a brief stay in the hospital, Martin returned to jail, where he spent three weeks in a medical bay. He was then classified under suicide watch, where he would remain for the rest of his stay in the Utah County Jail.

  Housed alone in an isolated cell, a light shone on him twenty-four hours a day. He was devoid of any human interactions and monitored constantly by guards. When he moved outside of his cell to the shower room, he remained cuffed. His only attire was a suicide robe, a heavy, tear-resistant, single-piece garment.

  The conditions in isolation slowly ate away at Martin mentally and physically, Randall Spencer said. He had been unable to sleep and had lost weight. Martin grew increasingly depressed, slipping deeper into the recesses of his dark mind.

  “The manner in which he is being housed at the jail is slowly killing him, and having a significant effect on his mental health to the point that I seriously question his competency to reasonably assist me in preparing for the trial,” Spencer wrote in a motion filed in January 2014.

  Spencer had filed the petition to request a competency hearing or a trial delay to restore his client to a “reasonable degree of physical and mental health.”

  “It is my observation and belief that Mr. MacNeill’s condition is bad and worsening,” Spencer wrote. “He does not seem to care about the pending trial or how it may affect him, which is a completely different mental state for him than my past experience over the last six and a half years of representation.”

  When Martin next appeared in court, on January 23, his faded inmate clothing hung loosely over his gaunt frame. A scruffy beard covered his drawn, ashen face.

  “His mental illness is flaring up,” Spencer told Judge McVey. “He needs to be evaluated. Things are getting worse.”

  Due to a recent decision by the Utah Court of Appeals, if an attorney asked for a mental competency evaluation, the judge was forced to grant the request.

  “Any time that trial counsel raises a bona fide doubt as to a defendant’s competency to stand trial, the trial court is required to order a full hearing into competency,” McVey announced. “So the court has no choice when that has happened.”

  The ruling derailed Martin’s upcoming trial and the sentencing, frustrating Michele’s family.

  “I think it’s ridiculous,” Alexis told reporters. “He uses this mental illness card whenever it suits him.”

  * * *

  In January, meanwhile, Spencer also filed an appeal requesting a new murder trial, arguing federal inmate Michael Buchanan lied on the stand in exchange for an early release.

  Buchanan had insisted under cross-examination that he would not receive an early release in exchange for his testimony. Prosecutors and investigators also told the judge and defense no deal had been negotiated for Buchanan. Weeks after the trial, however, Jeff Robinson wrote to federal prosecutors, calling Buchanan a “very important witness” and stating that he “highly recommended” and encouraged leniency.

  Buchanan was subsequently released from prison two years early.

  Spencer was disgusted with the prosecutors and filed motions to have the verdict vacated, the charges dismissed, or for prosecutors to be removed from the case.

  * * *

  For the next few months, Martin further delayed the sexual assault trial by refusing to cooperate with doctors for the court-ordered mental health evaluation. By late April, however, he had changed his mind and agreed to participate. Two doctors evaluated Martin and both found he was competent to move forward with the trial.

  McVey set a trial date for July and made it clear there would be no further delays.

  Throughout the summer of 2014, Martin attended pretrial hearings for the forcible sexual abuse case and the murder appeal.

  Despite still being on suicide watch, Martin appeared more at ease in court, smiling and speaking animatedly with his attorneys. By late June, Spencer suggested that his client was open to discussing a plea.

  Alexis, however, wanted to confront her father in court. “As a victim of sexual abuse, I felt it a duty to come forward and seek justice for these crimes,” Alexis told reporters. “Regardless of the outcome, I think I will sleep a little better tonight knowing I’ve done everything in my power to protect my family, protect my little sisters and others from my father, who is a murderer and a sexual predator.”

  50.

  In a different courtroom, the same cast of characters assembled for Martin MacNeill’s final act. For the second time in less than a year he stood trial, this time for forcible sexual abuse of his very own daughter.

  The trial began on July 2, 2014, and would last just two days.

  Prosecutor David Sturgill told the jury the case would center on the testimony of Alexis Somers. “There will be other witnesses, there will be additional testimony, but she will be the bulk of the state’s case,” Sturgill said. “Watch her, listen to her, and eventually we’ll talk again.”

  Once again, the defense attacked Alexis’s character. Randall Spencer told the jurors to be careful and evaluate Alexis’s testimony because, according to him, she had a reputation of lying.

  On the first day of the trial, Alexis took the stand, telling jurors how at the age of twenty-four and just six weeks after her beloved mother’s death, she awoke to her father fondling her. His hand was down her pants, his lips on her palm. She’d bolted from the bed, repulsed.

  She explained that she made amends with her father after the incident and that she later sent him postcards from Cancún, Mexico, to persuade him to allow her to return to the house. The postcards were entered into evidence by the prosecutor.

  On cross, Spencer tried to poke holes in her testimony, questioning why she waited months to call the police. Once again the defense attorney became combative, but Alexis remained calm and resolute on the stand.

  On the second day of the trial, Rachel testified about the family meeting her father had called when he informed his children that the younger girls would no longer be allowed in his bedroom for fear he might touch them in his sleep.

  Lieutenant Britt Smith of the Pleasant Grove police also took the stand, to discuss taking the report.

  Spencer called no witnesses—he based his case exclusively on the theory the prosecution had insufficient evidence.

  During closing arguments, Sturgill described the “turmoil” going on inside the MacNeill home during 2007.

  “Is there any wonder or any question why Alexis would do what she had to do to get this out in the open and protect those kids?” Sturgill asked the jury. “Yes, she had something to gain by coming forward, but that doesn’t mean she lied about it.”

  Spencer told the jurors Alexis had slanted her testimony out of a desire to gain custody of her sisters. “She’s a very sharp woman, but she also has motive to not be truthful,” Spencer said. “If she was truly so concerned about the kids being in the home with a sexual predator, is it reasonable to believe she would have gone off with her friends to Cancún?”

  On July 3, the case went to the jury. Just before 7 P.M., the five-woman, three-man jury returned a verdict: guilty of one count of forcible sexual abuse.

  Martin faced up to fifteen additional years in prison.

  After the verdict, Alexis spoke to reporters. “He’s a sexual predator,” she said. “There’s some justice. The jury once again saw the truth.”

  Sentencing for the sexual abuse conviction was delayed for months due to one of Randall Spencer’s trademark motions to dismiss. In the motion, he argued the police had lost a recorded interview between Alexis and officers from 2007, which denied him the opportunity to cross-examine any inconsistent statements Alexis made on the stand “with her own words.”

  It was similar to an argument Spencer had made before trial when he asked for the case to be tossed due to the lost evidence. McVey had rejected the argument then, and once again denied the motion, stating that deleting the recording was an error but not “gross negligence” or done “in bad faith.�
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  Meanwhile, in another courtroom, Judge Pullan had been mulling over a similar defense motion: to throw out the guilty verdict in the murder trial because prosecutors hadn’t disclosed the deal with inmate Michael Buchanan. On Friday, August 29, eight months after the motion had been filed, Judge Derek Pullan gave his ruling.

  “The question is whether there is a reasonable likelihood that the false testimony affected the trial,” Pullan’s forty-page ruling read. “The Court holds no.”

  Martin would receive no new trial.

  Pullan actually agreed with Spencer, stating that prosecutors had “elicited false testimony” about whether Buchanan received any benefits for his testimony, adding that a member of the prosecution knew the testimony was untrue and did nothing to correct it.

  Ironically, the judge’s reason for denying the motion was Spencer’s “long, pointed, and devastating” cross-examination of Buchanan, which proved to the jury the inmate would have done anything to get out of prison early. The judge added Martin was convicted even though the jury didn’t trust Buchanan, so a new trial wouldn’t change the outcome.

  “Jurors understood that the interests of the inmates in the case were different than any ordinary witness, and that both had motive to testify falsely,” Pullan wrote in his ruling.

  Martin’s latest hope for a release had been dashed. Outside the courtroom, Spencer seemed dejected.

  “We’re obviously very disappointed in the decision,” Spencer told reporters outside of court.

  It was the defense attorney’s final word on the case.

  * * *

  After months of delays, both of Martin MacNeill’s trials would conclude the third week of September.

  On Monday, September 15, 2014, Martin was sentenced for sexually assaulting his daughter. Wearing a red-and-white-striped jumpsuit, Martin sat in the back row of the jury box, shackled to other inmates. He remained stone-faced as Alexis addressed the judge, pleading for the maximum sentence.

  “My father’s evil did not begin or end with the murder of my mother. Shortly after my mother’s death, my father sexually assaulted me on two different occasions,” Alexis told Judge McVey. “He destroyed my world and created a living nightmare in its place.”

  Alexis held back tears as she stared directly at the judge, never glancing at Martin.

  “He made the choice to destroy his family,” Alexis said. “He made the choice to murder my mother. He made the choice to sexually assault me.”

  Alexis insisted she was not the only victim of sex abuse at the hands of Martin. She hoped his conviction in her case would help his other victims heal.

  “He has created his own fate,” she said. “My father’s façade is now crumbled. My father is a monster.”

  Spencer did not say anything on his client’s behalf. Martin also refused to address the judge, as most defendants do during sentencing. He continued to deny guilt and had not cooperated with a postconviction evaluation to offer mitigating factors to possibly reduce his prison term. Instead, he stared straight ahead as the judge handed down the sentence.

  “Mr. MacNeill is not only not cooperating, but he has not admitted to misconduct, which would preclude him from being involved in sex offender treatment,” McVey told the court.

  For those reasons, McVey could not consider parole, and instead gave Martin the maximum sentence: one to fifteen years in Utah State Prison.

  Following the sentence, Spencer bolted from the courtroom without addressing reporters.

  Martin, meanwhile, was transferred from the Utah County Jail to the Utah State Prison, where he exchanged his red and white stripes for a bright orange jumpsuit.

  * * *

  Seven years, five months, and eight days had passed since Michele’s life ended in the bathtub of her home in Pleasant Grove. On Friday, September 19, Martin was finally sentenced for her murder.

  Seated at the defense table beside his attorney, Martin appeared gaunt in his orange prison garb. He wore his square-framed glasses, his gray hair closely cropped. Hovering nearby, two Department of Corrections officers monitored their new prisoner’s every move.

  Throughout the proceedings, Martin chatted and laughed with his attorney. He ignored the three women responsible for putting him in jail, refusing to acknowledge them when they addressed the court to request the maximum sentence.

  As Linda Cluff approached the podium, Martin barely looked in her direction. Throughout her statement to the judge, Martin continued whispering in his attorney’s ear.

  “Martin is a man who believes he is above the law,” Linda told Judge Pullan, her voice defiant. “He believes he is above everyone and everything. He is calculating and controlling. Martin is evil.”

  Linda said several painful questions remained in Michele’s murder: Did her sister suffer? Was she scared? What was she thinking? What were her last thoughts? “I shatter thinking of my sister looking at her own husband as he was doing this to her,” Linda said.

  At one point while addressing the court, she turned and glared directly at her former brother-in-law. For a brief moment, Martin looked back at her, the two locking eyes.

  “I can finally look into the eyes of my sister’s murderer and say, ‘Martin, you haven’t gotten away with this,’” she said.

  Linda would later say she saw nothing staring back at her, just a blank gaze. “There was no emotion whatsoever. Just a cold, calculated look,” she recalled.

  Rachel MacNeill sobbed throughout most of her statement, as she spoke of the loss of her mother. “He took the kindest, most caring person I’ve ever known, and he calculatingly took her from us all,” Rachel said, tears clouding her eyes.

  Since her mother’s murder, her family had been shattered, she said, referencing her brother’s suicide. “True justice for my mother does not end with the conviction and sentencing of her murderer,” she said. “It begins.”

  Alexis asked the judge to show her mother’s murderer that he “is not above the law” and to sentence Martin to the maximum.

  “He has never shown remorse for any of his crimes,” Alexis told Judge Pullan. “While we wept, he laughed. He used the date of my mother’s funeral as the marriage date of his mistress.”

  Finally, she described how the loss of her mother had impacted her entire family. “He has destroyed so many lives,” Alexis said. “She was taken from us and robbed of her life. We were all robbed of so much happiness and joy.”

  Prosecutor Chad Grunander then stood to address the court, lamenting that Utah law didn’t consider Michele’s murder a capital offense, which would have made Martin eligible for the death penalty.

  “This was a heinous, heinous, terrible crime—premeditated murder. But in Utah, it doesn’t qualify as a capital offense,” the prosecutor said. “It’s as bad as you can get. Doctor, husband, father, a lawyer—what he did here, using his unique special knowledge, it’s as bad as it gets.”

  Once again, Martin refused to address the court. Spencer also did not speak or make any recommendations for leniency.

  Judge Pullan then delivered the sentence, reading from a prepared ruling. “The defendant was a respected doctor and family man, but he was also engaged in an extramarital affair and unwilling to give up his social standing or his paramour,” Pullan said. “Divorce was unacceptable to him. Instead, he devised a plan to murder his wife.”

  In orchestrating the murder, Martin used his knowledge as a physician to secure the drugs, which the judge said was particularly reprehensible. “A man who has taken an oath to do no harm only adds insult to irreparable injury.”

  Martin’s calculated scheme to kill his wife was all part of a “juvenile and bizarre plan” to start a new life with his mistress, the judge said.

  “Mr. MacNeill has led a double life, which in the end proved to be unsustainable,” Pullan said. “The devastation experienced by the MacNeill family is immeasurable.”

  The crimes committed were done with an “unmitigated selfishness that really shocks
the conscience,” the judge explained, looking directly at Martin.

  “Mr. MacNeill, as you deprived Michele MacNeill of her life, the state of Utah exacts from you today the liberty you otherwise might have enjoyed in your remaining years,” Pullan said. “The only restitution that can be made is just punishment.”

  Pullan then sentenced Martin to the harshest term possible: at least fifteen years and up to life on the murder charge, plus one to fifteen years on the conviction for obstruction of justice.

  The sentences would run consecutively, meaning he would not begin serving time on one sentence until the first one was completed. The sexual assault sentence would also run consecutively. He received credit for the 748 days he had spent in jail waiting for trial and sentencing.

  Martin would serve seventeen years before he would be eligible for parole, which in this case would not likely be granted. For Martin, it was essentially a life sentence, Grunander later said.

  “Given his age, he’s fifty-eight years old now, given the circumstances of this crime, the fact that he’s not taking any responsibility, if he continues to do that, there’s absolutely no hope he’s going to be released. I think he dies in prison,” explained the prosecutor. “I think even if he does take responsibility, in the interest of justice he will never be free again.”

  For Michele MacNeill’s loved ones, the sentence freed them from the hell they had been living in for the past seven years.

  “This is what we were hoping for. We’re just happy this chapter is finally closed,” Linda Cluff told reporters as she stood outside the courtroom. “It’s utter relief. It’s indescribable … I felt Michele’s presence there. It’s just a wonderful feeling.”

  After the sentence was read, Martin rose from the defense table. His hands were cuffed behind him as he was led away by corrections officers, returning to the bleak and isolated prison cell where he would spend each day for the rest of his life.

  With that the curtain closed on Martin MacNeill’s theater of the macabre. His audience had vanished. His final stage was a prison.