The murder of Deborah Meindl was savage and sudden: Ms. Meindl, a nursing student with two young daughters and an unfaithful husband, returned to her small home just north of Buffalo, N.Y., and was stabbed, beaten, and strangled with a necktie, her hands cuffed behind her back.
More than 32 years after that February afternoon in Tonawanda, opening arguments are expected Friday in the trial of a man accused in her slaying — for the second time — as the Erie County district attorney, Michael J. Keane, tries to secure a conviction despite a lack of physical evidence and potentially exculpatory DNA.
The case’s history includes dead witnesses, overturned convictions and wild accusations from a famed criminal. And, overshadowing it all, the lingering question of why justice has been so hard to find, both in the 1993 killing and, in the minds of the defense, for the two men accused of it.
A year after the attack, Brian Scott Lorenz, known as a petty thief, was convicted of the murder largely on the testimony of a collection of unsavory associates and a single collectible coin, linked to the Meindl family, that was found in a car that Mr. Lorenz had stolen. James Pugh, a casual friend of Mr. Lorenz, was also convicted of the murder, which prosecutors posited had stemmed from a burglary gone wrong.
In 1994, both men received life sentences, despite steadfastly declaring their innocence.
But in August 2023, Justice Paul B. Wojtaszek of State Supreme Court set aside the convictions of both men, noting that genetic material taken from the crime scene did not match either defendant and that prosecutors had not revealed certain evidence to the defense.
The judge, in Erie County, N.Y., home to Buffalo and Tonawanda, granted new trials to both Mr. Pugh, who had already been released on parole, and Mr. Lorenz, who has remained in custody and has been denied bail.
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The post 32 Years After a Brutal Murder, a Man Is on Trial. Again. appeared first on New York Times.
