See:
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=1a320f13-2302-4605-bf74-a00de54dadac
'Enough,' Says Murder Suspect
By
Izaskun E. Larrañeta
Online Reporter
Gary McAvoy stood Thursday before New London
Superior Court Judge Susan Handy and declared his
innocence in the 2004 murder of physicist Eugene Mallove.
He didn't do it and doesn't know who did, he told the judge.
Enough is enough, said McAvoy. I'm charged
with a murder I had nothing to do with. Its time
to start looking someplace else.
McAvoy and his co-defendent Joseph Reilly, may
soon be free. The the state forensics lab
mistakenly labeled a hair seized from a stolen
car in New Britain as one that was collected from the victim's van.
His attorney, William T. Koch Jr. said he would
ask the court to dismiss the charges against
McAvoy at his next court appearance Nov. 6.
McAvoy said Thursday the Norwich police had
erroneously arrested him. He claimed that blood
and fingerprints belonging to another unknown
person was found at the crime scene. He
encouraged the police department to look for
the person responsible for the murder.
I just feel like I needed to say this, he said.
After the court appearance McAvoy's mother,
Marion Duffy said it was hard seeing her son
behind bars for a crime she knows he didn't commit.
If the Norwich police had did their job from the
beginning, this would not have happened, said
Duffy. It's been devastating for us. I feel
sorry for the Mallove family too. I feel they are victims too.
Chief State's Attorney Kevin T. Kane has to talk
with McAvoy's attorney, Mallove's family in New
Hampshire, and McAvoy's co-defendant's attorney,
Jeremiah Donovan, Handy said, before any action can be taken on the case.
McAvoy, 46, and Reilly, 42, are charged with
murdering Mallove in Norwich on May 14, 2004. A
physicist who championed cold fusion, Mallove,
56, of Pembroke, N.H., was found beaten to death
in the driveway of his mother's house on Salem
Turnpike. The cause of death was a crushed trachea.
The same weekend, New Britain police arrested
McAvoy and Reilly in a car stolen from Groton and
found evidence of physical violence, including
blood on their clothing. Norwich police charged
the men with Mallove's murder about a year later.
Both men adamantly denied being in Norwich that
weekend, though they admitted they had been on a
crack cocaine binge and participated in several burglaries.
Both attorneys have maintained that the state's
case is weak. The attorneys said none of the
physical evidence established guilt, and the
state had relied on jailhouse snitches to bring
charges against their clients.
DNA tests revealed that none of the blood on the
men's clothing came from Mallove, and McAvoy told
police that he and Reilly had a fight.
Reilly also briefly appeared in court Thursday
and his case was continue to Nov. 6.
McAvoy and Reilly both are serving prison
sentences for other crimes. McAvoy's maximum
release date for a five-year sentence for
third-degree larceny is August 2009, according to
the Department of Correction. Reilly's release
date for a 4½-year burglary conviction is February 2009.
