After two days of deliberations, a jury has found Richard Ellison guilty of second-degree murder in the 2005 killing of Robert McMillan. He was found not guilty of first-degree murder.
Ellison, 49, was charged with setting the fire that killed McMillan on Dec. 9, 2005, at the duplex where he lived at 282-284 N. State Street in Concord. McMillan, 74, was confined to his bed after a stroke and his live-in caretaker Stephen Carter wasn’t home when the fire began. McMillan was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, where he died.
The jury began deliberations on Wednesday afternoon and presented their verdict Friday in Merrimack County Superior Court.
In the summer of 2005, Ellison and his girlfriend Robin Theriault had stayed with Carter until Carter asked them to leave the duplex. Prosecutors argued that Ellison’s anger at Carter motivated him to use gasoline to set the duplex on fire.
“He acted on his festering grudge against Stephen Carter for kicking him out of the residence months before, and not paying him enough for his work at the house,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Susan G. Morrell said in the prosecution’s closing argument. “The defendant’s actions caused Bob’s agonizing death, burning alive in his bed.”
Public defender Jeremy Clemans argued that Ellison had no motive to set the fatal blaze, and said that police had made promises to witnesses who testified against Ellison. The defense said that there was not enough evidence that the fire was set deliberately, and suggested that Carter might have caused it.
“We are not saying what the origin and cause are, but what we’ve shown you is that the state has not ruled out unintended ignition sources and Stephen Carter,” Clemans said his closing argument on Wednesday.
The case remained cold for years, until Ellison was arrested in 2018.
Ellison’s first trial in 2021 was declared a mistrial after the jury found itself deadlocked and multiple jurors left. His retrial began in April, after key witness Robin Theriault had died of COVID complications in October. Jurors heard Theriault’s audio testimony and read transcripts from a 2006 interview with police.
Jurors also saw video surveillance footage from local gas stations and heard from fire investigation experts, law enforcement and two additional witnesses who said that Ellison later confessed the murder to them.
Under New Hampshire law, second-degree murder is when someone “knowingly causes the death” of another or causes death “recklessly,” showing an “extreme indifference to the value of human life.” Ellison could now face life in prison.
Murder in the first degree requires “purposely” causing the death of another, while committing another serious crime, including arson. Those found guilty of first-degree murder face life imprisonment without the chance at parole.
Ellison’s sentencing date is set for 10 a.m. on June 30.