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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Former LDS Missionary Found Guilty Of Death Of Wife
(Fremont Man Found Guilty in Death of Wife)
San Francisco Chronicle pgA19 7Apr00 D2
By Henry K. Lee: Chronicle Staff Writer;
FREMONT, CALIFORNIA -- Former LDS missionary Dan Mackay, 44, was
found guilty Thursday, April 6th of voluntary manslaughter in the
death of his wife. Mackay could face up to 12 years in prison at his
July 21st sentencing hearing before Alameda County Superior Court
Judge Leo Dorado. The four-woman, eight-man jury took less than three
days to find him guilty of manslaughter instead of murder, which
could have led to a life sentence.
Prosecutors told the jury that Mackay crushed his wife's skull with a
baseball bat before dumping her body in a ravine in 1998. Mackay's
attorney's had argued during the monthlong trial that the killing was
not premeditated, but a crime of passion. Mackay's marriage of 20
years to Debby Mackay was failing, and the couple had filed for
divorce.
In the trial, unflattering details of the couple's marriage were
introduced as evidence, including the defense's claim that Debby
Mackay's breast implant surgery, appetite-reduction operation and use
of a diet drug prompted extra-marital affairs, leaving Mackay's life
miserable and enraged, and led him to an affair with a Texas woman he
met on the Internet.
The verdict left Debby Mackay's parents angry and dismayed at what
they call character assassination of their daughter. "He got away
with murder, and now he has to live with himself," Charlene
Whitehead, 61, the victim's mother, said from her home near Salt Lake
City. "Debby was loved by everyone. She was a beautiful person made
to look like a tramp in that trial."
Mackay's lawyer, Penny Cooper, calls the events the tragic result of
Debby Mackay's affairs, "It's a tragedy, but I think, under those
circumstances, it was clear he was operating in the heat of passion
and just lost it, basically," Cooper said. "I really think justice
was served." But prosecutor Paul Pinney says that Mackay's actions
after the attack were consistent with a planned murder, "I think the
evidence was there for some type of murder," Pinney said. "Naturally,
I'm disappointed, but I hope this brings some closure to both
families."
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