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

LAWRENCE, Mass. — The trial of a 76-year-old Alabama man accused of killing an 11-year-old girl in Massachusetts in 1988 ended Wednesday when a judge declared a mistrial because of a deadlocked jury.

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

McClendon was arrested last year, decades after Tremblay disappeared. DNA evidence linked McClendon to the murder, prosecutors said.

McClendon's attorney Henry Fasoldt said his client appreciated that the jury was “intentional and thoughtful” and looked forward to rehearing the case.

“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 at a Lawrence train yard on September 12, 1988, the day after she was reported missing. She had been stabbed and her body had been run over by a train, authorities said.

The victim had accompanied her mother and her mother's boyfriend to a social club in Lawrence, not far from the railyard, and had gone outside to play while the adults stayed inside, authorities said last year. She was reported missing later that evening.

Lawrence and Salem are just a few miles apart.

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