Jury deadlocks in trial of Alabama man accused of 1988 killing of 11-year-old Massachusetts girl

LAWRENCE, Massachusetts.- The trial of a 76-year-old Alabama man accused of the 1988 murder of an 11-year-old girl in Massachusetts ended Wednesday when a judge declared a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury.

Marvin C. McClendon Jr. had pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder in connection with the death of Melissa Ann Tremblay.

McClendon was arrested last year, decades after Tremblay disappeared. McClendon was linked to the murder through DNA evidence, according to the prosecutor.

McClendon’s attorney, Henry Fasoldt, said his client appreciated that the jury was “deliberate and thoughtful” and hopes to try the case again.

“Mr. McClendon maintains his innocence and I believe he is innocent,” Fasoldt said.

A spokesperson for the Essex County District Attorney’s Office said they plan to retry McClendon.

No new trial date has been set.

Tremblay, of Salem, New Hampshire, was found in a Lawrence train yard on September 12, 1988, the day after she was reported missing. She had been stabbed and her body run over by a train, authorities said.

The victim had accompanied her mother and her mother’s boyfriend to a Lawrence social club, not far from the train station, and went outside to play while the adults remained inside, authorities said last year. She was reported missing that same night.

Lawrence and Salem are just a few miles away.

McClendon, a former employee of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections, lived near Lawrence in Chelmsford and was doing carpentry work at the time of the murder, authorities said. He worked and attended church in Lawrence.