LEAH FREEMAN - 15 yo (2000) - Coquille (SW of Eugene) OR

Coquille OR ---- A decade after she vanished, police say they have a
suspect in the disappearance and death of a 15-year-old girl on the
Oregon coast."I'm confident we've identified a suspect in this
case," Coquille Police Chief Mark Dannels told a news conference Friday
at City Hall.Leah Freeman disappeared June 28, 2000, just before
her boyfriend was scheduled to pick her up. The case was treated as a
possible runaway until the girl's bloody shoe was found a few days later
in a cemetery near Coquille High School.Her other
blood-spattered shoe was found on a dirt road far out of town before her
body was discovered about a month later down a steep embankment off a
curving country road.

Coos County District Attorney R. Paul
Frasier said Friday he plans to ask Presiding Judge Richard Barron to
appoint a grand jury specifically for the case.Frasier hopes to
meet with the jurors once or twice a week to review the facts during
hearings expected to take two to three months, with more than 100
witnesses.He declined to identify the suspect or give more
details.'We're not going to arrest anybody until the grand jury
tells us," Frasier said.Cory Courtright, Leah's mother, said she
hopes someone will finally pay for her daughter's death."I'm just
going to keep my fingers crossed and pray that everything turns out the
way it should," Courtright ssaid. "Do I
think they'll solve this case? Yeah, I do. I hope so, anyway."Since
Dannels and Frasier announced they had reopened the case six months
ago, the investigation has involved a team of 35 law officers,
representing nearly every police department in Coos County, including
the Oregon State Police, the Coos County sheriff's office and the
Department of Justice.The team has re-examined more than 100
pieces of evidence and countless hours of investigation, a statement
said. The Coquille Police Department alone has spent more than $42,000
on overtime and $7,000 for travel and other costs.Frasier said
he's been up nights with about 5,500 pages of documents."We
haven't been sitting on our hands, that's for sure," Frasier said.Officers
have visited Washington, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and London's New
Scotland Yard since the investigation began in 2000.During the
most recent round of investigation, Frasier and Dannels presented the
case in January to the Vidocq Society, a crime-solving organization
based in Philadelphia. According to its website, Vidocq members
"evaluate, investigate, refocus, revivify and solve the unsolved deaths
officially brought to them."While the group didn't solve the
case, the society members gave local investigators some ideas on how to
re-approach it, Frasier said.Investigators have refused to reveal
how Leah died. Her death certificate lists her cause of death in
general terms: homicidal violence. Frasier and Dannels said details have
been kept confidential to help weed out false tips.Her mother
hopes it will all finally come to an end."Ten years is a long
time for a family to have to endure this kind of pain with no answers.
But we still have to go on," Courtright said. "She deserves justice and
she deserves to be remembered and honored on days like the day she
disappeared."

Fellow inmate slugs McGuffin


The man accused of killing 15-year-old Leah Freeman more than a decade ago took a beating earlier this month at the hands of a fellow inmate.
According to Coos County Sheriff's Sgt. Pat Downing, Nicholas McGuffin was injured in the Dec. 12 scuffle in the day room of his jail pod at the Coos County jail.
Downing said another inmate in the same jail pod walked by McGuffin, punched him in the back of the head and continued attacking the murder suspect.
Corrections deputies separated the men and quelled the fight.
'McGuffin suffered some minor scrapes and abrasions from the scuffle along with the lump on the back of the head where he was slugged," Downing told The World in an e-mail.
An assault report was filed with the Coos County District Attorney's Office charging Joshua R. Halaapiapi, 29, on fourth-degree assault.
McGuffin, 28, has been held at the jail since Aug. 23 on one count of murder, stemming from Freeman's death on or around June 28, 2000. A nine-day jury trial is scheduled to start May 10, 2011.
According to a court spokeswoman, Halaapiapi had pleaded guilty on second-degree criminal mischief on Sept. 2. He received a 30-day jail sentence.
He also pleaded guilty to third-degree assault and received 30 months in prison, followed by two years of post-prison supervision.
However, he is staying at the jail first on a June 26, 2009, strangulation, menacing and second-degree mischief conviction. He is serving a year per charge, and is expected to remain there until next June, a jail spokesman said.
http://theworldlink.com/news/local/article_f2bcfd25-6da8-509d-8c9c-1946b28e171f.html

McGuffin Trial Postponed Until July
May 5, 2011


COOS COUNTY, Ore. -- The trial of the man accused in the decade-old murder of Leah Freeman is being delayed.

A judge made that decision Thursday as the defense and prosecution tied up some loose ends.

Judge Richard Barron decided to postpone the trial because McGuffin's attorney has health-related issues preventing him from coming to court.

The judge gave McGuffin an option to either postpone it to July or even to November.

But McGuffin opted for the shorter time frame.

"Trials getting moved for these type of reasons doesn't happen very often but is understandable," said Paul Fraiser, Coos County District Attorney.

The judge also discussed the issue of state witnesses who can't testify in court.

McGuffin's side decided to allow the state to present some witness testimonies by telephone or in writing.

The district attorney admits that kind of flexibility could give the prosecution the upper hand, but it all depends on who can't testify in person.

"Sometimes it is to your advantage, sometimes it's not," Fraiser said.

The trial is expected to start in July and last a little more than a week.

http://kezi.com/news/local/211570

Witnesses recount Freeman's disappearance, McGuffin's actions



COQUILLE, Ore. - Witnesses continued to paint a picture of the events before and after Leah Freeman disappeared on June 28, 2000, as prosecutors continued to whittle away at the clean-cut image of the man accused of killing his high school girlfriend more than a decade ago.

Nick McGuffin faces a charge of murder in Freeman's death. Her body was found thrown off the side of a road in August 2000. A grand jury indicted McGuffin last year.
Sherrie Mitchell, who considered Leah to be her best friend at the time, testified to the changes in Freeman after she started dating McGuffin.
"She started using drugs, um, she stopped being, like, bubbly and happy and fun to be around and kind of became, like, serious and dramatic," Mitchell testified Monday, "and she was really jealous, which I didn't remember her being before."
Prosecutors also called McGuffin's friend, Brent Bartley, who testified that he noticed a change in the trunk of McGuffin's Mustang after Freeman's disappearance. He told the court the trunk looked "clean."
"What about the trunk?" asked Chief Deputy District Attorney Erika Soublet.
"Dirty, because that's where he threw all his stuff, usually, then after it was clean," Bartley said.
"I'm sorry," Soublet said, "can you say again, what?"
"It was clean," Bartley said.
"And when was that?"
"After this all happened."
"By 'this all happened,' you mean after Miss Freeman went missing?" Soublet asked.
Bartley answered, "Yes."

http://www.kcby.com/news/local/125379343.html

"They brought out the worst in each other"



Jul 11, 2011


The Leah Freeman murder trial resumed with the prosecution delving into the culture of drinking and drug-use that they allege Nick McGuffin brought Freeman into as they dated.
Brent Bartley, a friend of McGuffin's, testified that he and his girlfriend, Nicky Price, gathered with McGuffin and Freeman for a night of movies and drinking at his grandparents home, as they were away, on the night of June 28, 2000.
That was the night the 15 year old teen disappeared, but Bartley also testified that he had trouble remembering some of the events because, besides being 11 years ago, he had been drinking and smoking marijuana.
He did tell Chief Deputy District Attorney Erika Soublet that he remembered his friend's Ford Mustang, which usually had a dirty trunk, had a clean trunk after Freeman went missing.
Under cross-examination, Defense Attorney Shaun McCrea sought to dispel an assertion from the prosecution earlier in the trial that a witness had recalled seeing two men, who matched the description of McGuffin and Bartley, walking on Fairview Mountain late that night. They reportedly had a blond girl with them.
When asked if he was on Fairview Mountain that night or early the next morning, Bartley stated he had not.
The last person known to have talked with Leah Freeman before the disappearance was her friend Sherrie Mitchell.
Mitchell noted that she had seen changes in her best friend after she started dating the 18-year-old McGuffin during her Freshman year at Coquille High School.
She said her friend had started using drugs after dating McGuffin, who she said was a known "druggie," and had become more jealous.
The two, she said, seemed to bring out the worst in each other, noting that both were flirtatious and jealous, causing arguments.
When Freeman had been at her home on the evening of the 28th, "hanging-out," she wrote a note to Mitchell as the two listened to music in her room.
Mitchell read the letter in court, which included an update on Freeman's relationship with McGuffin. "...Nick and I have been getting along a lot better," Freeman wrote, "I wasn't really mad at Nick when I got out to come over to the house, I just didn't feel like being around him anymore tonight. I love him to death, but that boy gets an attitude sometimes..."
Before she had found the note in her room, Mitchell and Freeman had argued after Mitchell's mother wouldn't let Sherrie go jogging with Leah.
Discussion again turned to her relationship with McGuffin. "They didn't bring out the best in each other, they brought out the worst in each other and, you know, it wasn't something I had really told her before and so I was just honest. I told her I didn't think that they were a great couple."
District Attorney Paul Frasier asked how Leah Freeman responded to that. Mitchell replied, "She said, 'I'm sorry I'm not good enough for you'...and she walked away.
Mitchell testified that it was pretty soon after that that McGuffin arrived at her home looking for Freeman.

http://www.kcby.com/news/local/125389568.html

Witness: McGuffin's behavior 'was weird because Leah was missing'


COQUILLE, Ore. - A witness who claimed to hear a man accused of murdering his high school girlfriend in 2000 telling someone to "watch her mouth and not talk to the cops" broke down in court Tuesday, saying she tried to go to police a decade ago but no one would listen.

Nick McGuffin is on trial for the 2000 murder of 15-year-old Leah Freeman. She vanished in June of that year. Her body turned up in August.
Prosecution witness Kristen Steinhauff told she court she smoked meth with McGuffin the night Leah disappeared - and that McGuffin tired to have sex with her that night.
She told the court "it was weird because Leah was missing."

Another witness, Tina Mims, said that after Leah vanished, she overhead McGuffin telling Steinhauff "watch her mouth and not talk to the cops" and something about "the back of a car being cleaned out."
That testimony sent an audible gasp through the courtroom.
Mims then broke down crying, saying she tried to go to police 10 years ago and say something but that no one would listen.
http://www.kcby.com/news/local/125450233.html

Witnesses recount times with McGuffin the night Freeman went missing


COQUILLE, ORE. - Once again, witness testimony in the Nick McGuffin murder trial turns to establishing a timeline of events, the night Leah Freeman went missing.
One thing that's for sure in the early part of the prosecutions case, is that a decade old case makes clear recollection difficult for witnesses.
The proceedings began Wednesday morning in Judge Richard Barron's courtroom, with the prosecution calling on four people who claimed to have been with, or seen McGuffin the night Freeman went missing.
The first being Nick's high school friend Brett Mauro who claimed he saw nick at about 9:40 that night at the Fast Mart.
"I asked the defendant to go somewhere with me and he said 'no' his girlfriend was gone. And I said, 'she can't be gone she has to be somewhere' and he said, 'no, she's gone.'" says Mauro. Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier follows up by asking, "And did he repeat that she was gone?" "4,5,6 times," Mauro replied.
What was perhaps the most shocking testimony also led to the some of the sharpest exchanges in the trial as McGuffin's friend Danny Hamilton claimed McGuffin and Freeman met up together after McGuffin dropped her off at Sherrie Mitchell's house.
McGuffin has always claimed he never saw Freeman again after he dropped her off that evening.
"She was supposed to be going to a friends house and I think they may have got into an argument about it or what not, and some point or another, they met up again in his car. Nick found her and they were arguing and she got out of the car somewhere around McKay's and Nick said he drove around a loop and went back to go find her and never could find her," says Hamilton.
But the defense had credibility issues with Hamilton, when he said he couldn't remember saying certain things to detectives investigating the case.
McGuffin's defense attorney Robert McCrea asks Hamilton, "did you make that statement to the detective?" "Not that I remember, no... like you're saying this is ten years ago, it's hard to remember some of it. I remember the stuff in my mind that seemed funny but other than that I don't remember all that other stuff," says Hamilton.
Kristen Steinhoff-Ramsey and Tina Mims also took the stand testifying to seeing McGuffin that night.
It is anticipated the defense could start presenting their case by the end of the week.
http://www.kcby.com/news/local/125457243.html

Defense expected to begin their case on Thursday


COQUILLE, ORE. - As the prosecution continued to call witnesses to the stand Wednesday during the Leah Freeman murder trial, the case turned largely to the CSI kinds of evidence, with a former OSP criminologist focusing on the forensics of the case.
Five more witnesses appeared before Judge Richard Barron and a packed courtroom., to testify against Nick McGuffin in the death of Leah Freeman.
One witness, Kristen Young, testified to hearing Wayne McGuffin and brother Nick joke about police finding Freeman's shoe.
"Wayne looked at his brother and addressed him and the room that, 'oh they won't find anything from that shoe, it was put there to make them think she was there,'" explains Young. District Attorney Paul Frasier followed up by asking, "how did the defendant respond to that comment?" Young says, "he nodded his head in agreement, acknowledged his statement and laughed about it."
But the defense quickly jumped on Young's statement.
Defense attorney Shaun McCrea asks, "and during the grand jury you didn't say anything at all about Mr. McGuffin laughing or nodding in agreement." "No," replied Young.
Also on the stand, retired Oregon State Police criminologist Kathy Wilcox, testified in forensic analysis conducted on Nick McGuffin's vehicles and Leah Freeman's clothes. While there didn't seem to be anything unusual that was discovered, she was struck by something when asked by Frasier if there was anything in the trunk of McGuffin's Mustang.
"Not a thing, nothing. No spare tire, no trunk liner. I remember when I opened it I was going like, 'wow there's just nothing,'" Wilcox told the jury.
She also testified that there was no blood found in the trunk.
Under cross examination the defense asked, if someone were to hose out a trunk, would blood still be detectable if it had been there? Wilcox said it could be.
The prosecution expects to rest it's case Wednesday night.
It looks like sometime Thursday morning the defense could begin it's case and it's believed they will call their own forensic expert to testify.

http://www.kcby.com/news/125531543.html

Freeman's cause of death still unknown
COQUILLE, ORE. - Because the body of Leah Freeman was so badly decomposed, the medical examiners and forensic scientists who examined her remains, are still inconclusive about her cause of death.

They do all seem to agree, however, that her death was the result of some sort of homicide.

With the prosecution wrapping up it's case just before the lunch break Thursday afternoon, a medical examiner and forensic expert took to the stand to explain their findings.

During questioning, Jim Pex, who's testified as a forensic expert in criminal cases across the United States, says it's hard to determine whether the body of Freeman was rolled down an embankment and left on the side of Lee Valley Road, or if she was killed there.

"That isn't always easy to establish. The one thing that I notice right away is that her legs are crossed and that is often an indication that someone has been rolled over. Whether rolled over going down an embankment or rolled over on the side, I don't know," explains Pex.

Medical Examiner James Olson says Freeman's body was almost completely skeletonized and there were no usable internal organs left to evaluate.

He could not determine a cause of death due to decomposition but felt most comfortable describing it as homicidal violence of an undetermined type.

"I chose to call it homicidal violence of an undetermined type because of the circumstances. In other words, finding other items of her apparel, one of which had blood on it. You basically have the disappearance of this healthy, young woman and she's dumped. There's no question, she's dumped in an area that was probably intended, hopefully to conceal her remains, perhaps indefinitely," says Olson.

A portion of Freeman's calf muscle, which was the most in tact part of her remains, was sent off to a lab and tested for drugs; that drug screen came back negative.

KCBY will be back in court Friday morning to hear the case from Nick McGuffin's defense team as they begin their first full day of testimony.

http://www.kcby.com/news/local/125604798.html

Jury finds man not guilty of teen's murder, guilty of manslaughter


Jul 19, 2011
COQUILLE, Ore. - A jury found a man accused of killing his high school girlfriend in 2000 not guilty of murder but guilty of first-degree manslaughter.
Nick McGuffin was on trial for the death of 15-year-old Leah Freeman in 2000.
Officers from the Coquille Police Department and Coos County Sheriff's Office lined both sides of the courtroom as the verdict came down around 11 o'clock Tuesday.
As the judge read the verdict, McGuffin broke down into tears. His hands were shaking as he brought a tissue to his face.
Freeman's mother, Cory Courtright, cried as the verdict was read.
The jury found McGuffin not guilty of murder by a vote of 10-2.
They jury found McGuffin guilty of manslaughter by a vote of 10-2.
Sentencing hearing is set for August 1. He faces a 10-year prison sentence under Oregon's mandatory minimum sentencing laws.
Freeman disappeared in June 2000 when she was 15 years old.
Initially reported as a possible runaway and later a missing person, the discovery of her body off the side of a rural road in August 2000 shifted the case to homicide.
Another 10 years would pass before a grand jury would indict Freeman's boyfriend at the time, McGuffin (at right), and charge him with her murder.
Prosecutors argued McGuffin was upset Freeman was not spending time with him on the night she dissappeared.
"The volatile mix of those two individuals came to a violent end with Leah Freeman's life being taken," Erika Soublet, Coos County's chief deputy district attorney, said in her opening statement.
The defense said the prosecution's time frame just didn't match up.
"The evidence will show that no one saw Nick catch up with Leah at anytime along the road," defense attorney Shaun McCrea told the jury from the outset.
Freeman's cause of death was never determined beyond "homicidal violence," according to medical experts who testified at the trial.
Prosecutors called a number of friends of the two to testify about their behavior at the time. The testimony painted a picture of a drug- and sex-soaked South Coast community of young people at the turn of the century.
http://www.kcby.com/news/125826133.html

Family: Justice comes at last for Leah



Jul 19, 2011
11 years after her disappearance and death, the family of Leah Freeman says justice has come at last for the Coquille teen. A nine woman, three man, jury returned a Guilty verdict, but not for Murder.
Family and friends of both Freeman and her accused killer, Nick McGuffin, were called to Judge Richard Barron's courtroom just before 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 19, as the jury reached a verdict in the case.
After a misstep in how they filled-out their paperwork, the jury returned a second time to the courtroom with a verdict. By matching 10-2 votes, Not Guilty of Murder...but Guilty of Manslaughter.
In a Press Conference afterwards, Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier thanked all of the many, many law enforcement officers and investigators who have worked on the case since the 15-year-old Freeman went missing in June of 2000. All of which led to the conviction of her then-boyfriend Nick McGuffin.
He particularly singled-out former Coquille Police Chief Mark Dannels, who re-opened the case...and re-organized it...soon after he became Chief in 2008.
As for the verdict, Frasier says he is pleased that the jury convicted of First Degree Manslaughter. "Again, like I said in my closing argument, I really do not believe Nick McGuffin woke up that morning and said 'I'm gonna go kill Leah Freeman.' I think what happened was, like I said in argument, is just an unfortunate set of circumstances came together and Leah ends up dead."
As for the woman who made it her crusade to get justice for her daughter, Cory Courtright says it wasn't about getting closure. It was about Leah Freeman, and doing what was right.
"Nothing, nothing, will ever bring Leah back. But, nobody should get away with what happened to her. Nobody. Nobody should get away with it, and it's just ate at me, and ate at me, and ate at me, for over 11 years now. I fought the fight, and it's over now. Leah Freeman has her justice now."
Sentencing for McGuffin has been set for August 1, 2011, at 1:30 p.m.

http://www.kcby.com/news/125860724.html

Man gets 10 years, maintains innocence in teen's death
Published: Aug 1, 2011

COQUILLE, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man declared his innocence as he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the 2000 death of his teenaged girlfriend.

Now 29, Nicholas McGuffin was convicted last month of manslaughter by a Coos County, Ore., jury but acquitted of murder in the death of Leah Freeman.

Freeman was 15 when she disappeared on the night of June 28, 2000. Her body was found five weeks later. Police investigated McGuffin at the time but no charges were filed until last year, when a grand jury considering new evidence indicted him.

At Monday's sentencing, McGuffin read a lengthy statement in court, accusing prosecution witnesses of lying and saying "you're placing an innocent person in jail" while the real killer walks free.

Defense lawyer Shaun McCrea says she will seek a new trial.

http://www.kcby.com/news/local/126562778.html