On the day of his conviction, Logan Clegg maintained his innocence in the killing of a Concord couple, vowing to appeal his double murder conviction to the state Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, that day arrived. In a short hearing, Clegg’s attorney argued to the panel of judges that Concord police violated his constitutional rights when they obtained his phone data without a warrant.
Clegg was arrested in October 2022, six months after the murders of Steve and Wendy Reid six months earlier. The couple had gone for a walk in the woods near their home off Loudon Road and were found shot to death near a city hiking path. Clegg is serving two sentences of 50 years to life at the state prison.
Concord detectives obtained the location, call and text data that led to Clegg’s capture in Burlington, Vermont, through a request to his phone company before receiving a search warrant, according to court records.
Police can legally do that in certain circumstances, when a situation is so pressing that there’s a “compelling need” for immediate action.
Clegg’s lawyer, Thomas Barnard, argued the urgency wasn’t there. The killings had occurred months earlier, and any threat had dissipated, he said. Furthermore, since Clegg was unaware that police had his data, investigators had no reason to believe he’d move locations, turn his phone off or delete evidence in the immediate future.
Audrianna Mekula, an assistant attorney general, asked the Supreme Court to uphold Clegg’s conviction and argued that officers reasonably assumed those things could happen at any point because Clegg likely knew they were looking for him. Plus, she said, he had booked a one-way flight to Germany two days later.
Although Concord police requested this data without waiting for a warrant, they did obtain one hours later.
When Clegg’s attorney argued a similar violation of constitutional rights during trial, Merrimack Superior Court Judge John Kissinger said the urgency outweighed those rights. Concord police, he ruled, were justified in bypassing the warrant.
The six-month investigation to solve the murders involved local, state and federal law enforcement, culminating in the capture of then-26-year-old Clegg. He showed little emotion during his three-week trial in late 2023 and vowed to appeal his conviction.
“No man with any pride or dignity gives up just because it was a single battle,” he said in court after the jury found him guilty. โEspecially when he knows he was in the right.โ
The Supreme Court will consider whether Concord police violated Clegg’s rights during the investigation and, ultimately, whether his conviction will stand.
