CONCORD, N.H. (WHDH) - The trial for a man charged in the 2022 shooting deaths of a New Hampshire couple got underway Tuesday morning, a year after authorities tracked down and arrested the suspect.
Appearing in court during opening statements, Logan Clegg, 28, faces charges in connection with the deaths of Djeswende and Stephen Reid, who authorities say were shot to death in April of last year while out on a hiking trail.
The retired couple were initially reported missing after they left their home in Concord for a walk on April 18. Their bodies were found days later, setting off an investigation that ended when police arrested Clegg in Vermont in October that year.
According to an affidavit following his arrest, police honed in on Clegg after reviewing witness statements and other evidence – including a reported encounter officers had with a man named “Arthur Kelly” at a tent site the day before officials found the victims nearby.
Police later found the tent torched while “Kelly,” believed to be Clegg giving a false name, was missing.
Clegg was later arrested at a library in South Burlington, VT, on a fugitive from justice charge, as he was wanted in Utah in relation to a felony possession of stolen property case – a 2021 incident for which he was on probation.
Before his arrest, Concord Police had been notified he purchased a one-way plane ticket bound from JFK Airport to Germany. The actions appeared similar to when Clegg fled the country to Portugal as authorities in Utah tried to arrest him in that respective case.
“[At] the end of trial, we are going to ask you to find [Clegg] guilty – guilty of the crimes that he committed,” Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hagaman told jury members in a Concord courtroom on Tuesday, nearly a year after Clegg was arrested.
The prosecution emphasized that there was plenty of evidence against Clegg, and that the defendant lied to police on numerous occasions.
On the defense, an attorney for Clegg maintained the reason he lied to police and ran to another state was because he was on probation at the time, and did not want to communicate with police.
“The wrong man has been charged,” said defense attorney Caroline Smith. “Logan had no connection to the Reids, he had no contact with the Reids, and he did not murder the Reids.”
Clegg has pleaded not guilty to multiple second degree murder charges, as well as multiple charges of falsifying evidence and at least one count firearms-related charge.
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