Guilty Lawyer Still Blames His Murder Victim
In his first public comment after being sentenced to 12 years in prison for breaking into a neighbor’s home and stabbing him to death, a 30-year-old Connecticut lawyer says he still believes his wife’s accusation that the victim molested their young daughter.
However, police say there is no evidence this accusation is true, and a judge at Jonathan Edington’s sentencing earlier this year had harsh words apparently directed at his wife’s role, as discussed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post, although she was not charged. Nonetheless, he still believes 59-year-old Barry James did what his wife claims he did, says Edington in a letter he apparently wrote, according to the Associated Press.
“While I am deeply ashamed at my loss of control and am saddened at my role in a man’s death,” the letter-writer says, “I believe many fathers of young children would have acted similarly had they experienced the same horrific circumstances.”
Says Fairfield Police Capt. Gary MacNamara: “We followed nationally accepted standards with the way we conducted the investigation. We did a thorough investigation. We found no evidence to support a claim of molestation. There was no opportunity for Mr. James to have any contact with Mr. Edington’s daughter.”
Edington’s wife was reportedly suffering from postpartum depression.
