CONCORD, NH – Logan Clegg, convicted of a double murder two years ago, took his case before the New Hampshire Supreme Court Wednesday, arguing that police searched his phone without a warrant.
Clegg was convicted in October 2023 of the April 2022 murders of Djeswende and Stephen Reid of Concord. He is serving two consecutive sentences of 50 years to life in New Hampshire State Prison.
Wednesday, Clegg’s attorney, Thomas Barnard, argued before the state Supreme Court that the cellphone information that led police to Clegg in Vermont in October 2022 was improperly obtained without a warrant.
The Supreme Court will deliberate on the arguments it heard Wednesday from Barnard and Assistant Attorney General Audrianna Mekula before it makes a ruling on the appeal.
On Oct. 11, 2022, Concord police were told that Clegg bought an airline ticket for an Oct. 14, 2022, flight to Germany. Investigators used the cellphone number Clegg provided with the ticket To get information from Verizon, using the exigent circumstances provision, which allows investigators to get information in certain emergencies without a warrant. Police eventually got a warrant, after the information was provided.
The search by Verizon provided location data, historical cell phone data, and RTT data from Verizon. It led police to Clegg in Burlington, Vermont, where he was arrested on Oct. 13, 2022.
Barnard argued Wednesday before the Supreme Court. He told the court that Clegg had no idea that the police were on to him in connection with the April homicides, and had no reason to delete anything from his phone, turn it off, or change his location before they could get to him and arrest him. Therefore, there was no emergency circumstance.
Assistant Attorney General Audrianna Mekula argued, however, that the fact Clegg had booked a one-way trip to Germany, leaving in days, made getting the information as soon as possible necessary, and that Clegg did now police were looking for him.
Defense attorneys Caroline Smith and Mariana Dominguez had made similar arguments in Merrimack County Superior Court in May 2023, saying that the police had enough time to get the warrant before the data search, and that police didn’t prove probable cause for the post-search warrant.
They filed a motion that all evidence obtained as a result of the search must be suppressed, which included Clegg’s laptop and a loaded gun.
Superior Court Judge John Kissinger denied the pre-trial defense motion in June 2023. He added that other important factors that weigh in favor of a finding of exigent circumstances are that the weapon hadn’t been recovered and that Clegg had a ticket to fly to Germany on Oct. 14,
The randomness of the Reids’ killings also added to exigency, providing “[Concord police] with reason to believe Mr. Clegg might likewise randomly endanger others, particularly given the assumption he was likely armed.”
Djeswende Reid, 63, and Stephen Reid, 62, were shot multiple times while they were on a walk through the Broken Ground Trail system near the Loudon Road apartment in Concord. Their bodies were found April 21, 2022.
Clegg was convicted on four counts of second-degree murder for their deaths on Oct. 23, 2023, and in December 2023 was sentenced to two consecutive 50 years to life terms in state prison.