Photos courtesy of Benjamin Brayfield/The World

Many thanks are owed to Coquille Police Chief Mark Dannels for possessing the vision, the competence, the organizational skills and compassion necessary to piece the events of June 28, 2000 and the death of Leah Freeman back together. Officers Ray McNeely and Chris Webley as well as the rest of CPD have done an excellent job and have provided proof that with the right leadership and guidance they are all worthy to be called ‘crime fighters’ not just ‘traffic nazis‘. As critical as I once was of the department I am equally, doubly proud of them today with or without this verdict.

Thanks are due to Paul Frasier and Erika Soublet for laying down the preponderance of circumstantial evidence, layer by layer, that ultimately convinced the jury of Nick McGuffin’s responsibility for Leah’s death. Thankfully, I am by no means an expert on prosecution, but I was impressed with Frasier’s obvious skill in the courtroom. He was always paying attention to what the defense was doing, inferring and implying and was always ready with a proper redirect or objection. One of the prosecution’s most damning witnesses and heavily drilled by the defense during cross examination actually came from a lead provided by the McGuffin family.

The variety of rumors circulating around Coquille made it even more difficult, Frasier said. But the prosecution got an unexpected bonus during the investigation that may have helped make their case.

At one point, Frasier said his office asked the McGuffin family if there was anyone to whom they wanted prosecutors to talk.

The family pointed investigators to a young woman. But when investigators contacted the woman, she claimed to know nothing about the case, but said she knew someone who did.

That person turned out to be David Brakefield, a man who would later tell the court that McGuffin once told him, “I strangled (Freeman) and I will kill you, too.”

The amount of preparation that went into the case had to be staggering and all consuming.

Judge Richard Barron was also very impressive and he managed his courtroom with confidence and authority and his decision to release one of the jurors to avoid any appearance of impropriety that might taint a verdict is just one example. Barron was put to the test shortly after the reading of the verdict when Kathy McGuffin, despite instructions from the bench that there be no emotion in the courtroom, glared at each juror as they were polled and shook her head angrily. Mrs McGuffin and her son’s girlfriend, Maegen Edgerton were ordered to leave the court.

“Ma’am,” Barron said. “You and you need to leave, now.”

“We will go,” Kathy McGuffin shot back, and she and Edgerton walked out.

It is impossible to know how any mother would react in that situation but Kathy McGuffin has behaved aggressively and inappropriately during previous court proceedings. Of course, the family was understandably disappointed.

McGuffin and his family had a much different reaction. Reached by telephone Tuesday afternoon, McGuffin’s father, Bruce McGuffin, said, “I have nothing to say” in a heavy voice. Later, in a statement released through Shaun McCrea, Nicholas McGuffin’s Eugene attorney, he added “Nick McGuffin has been convicted, but it is extremely doubtful the Leah Freeman case has actually been solved.”

Lastly, many thanks to the community for demanding, despite an indifferent city council and city manager, excellence from the police department and forcing the city to hire a ‘real’ police chief. It should be noted that none of former police chief, Mike Reaves, defenders or anyone on the city council, that I saw, ever attended the trial.