Logan Clegg walks along the Marsh loop trail with defense attorney Maya Dominguez during the view during the first day of his trial in Concord, New Hampshire on Tuesday, October 3, 2023. Clegg was convicted in the shooting deaths of Steve and Wendy Reid in April of 2022. Pool photo by Geoff Forester/Concord Monitor

By DAMIEN FISHER, InDepthNH.org

Items recovered through improper searches that led Concord police detectives to arrest Logan Clegg for the killings of Stephen and Djeswende Wendy Reid will remain admissible, after Merrimack Superior Court Judge John Kissinger once more ruled in support of investigators.

Kissinger had been directed by the New Hampshire Supreme Court to review his earlier pre-trial decision permitting evidence from the improper searches. That material included a pistol, a counterfeit Romanian identity document, and $7,000 in cash.

Officers bypassed warrants when they obtained Clegg cell phone records via Verizon six months after the 2022 killings, then used the information to locate him in Burlington, Vermont. Kissinger initially approved the material derived from the warrantless data access based on the belief that Clegg might soon depart the country, establishing an urgent situation.

The Supreme Court dismissed that position in its March decision, noting that constitutional safeguards against searches without warrants extend even to those suspected of homicide. The Supreme Court decision returned the issue to Kissinger for reconsideration, this time under the principle of inevitable discovery.

Inevitable discovery permits the admission of improperly acquired evidence when it would have been located through lawful means absent the improper step. Kissinger determined on Friday that the Clegg material would have been obtained lawfully soon after its improper recovery, because investigators had already sought a warrant for comparable information through federal channels.

The Court finds that CPD would have inevitably discovered the evidence that was inside of Mr. Clegg backpack at the time of his arrest as well as the evidence found at his Burlington campsite, Kissinger wrote. Indeed, the historical facts demonstrate that under this scenario CPD would have located the campsite at least as quickly as it was able to following the warrantless exigency requests. Accordingly, the State has carried its burden of showing that it is practically certain CPD would and could have obtained this evidence lawfully, Kissinger wrote.

Friday ruling may have followed naturally from Kissinger choice to allow prosecutors to introduce testimony during an April hearing. Before Clegg original trial in 2023, prosecutors advanced the urgent-circumstances position and informed Kissinger they would not have located Clegg without the improper data access. Investigators thought they had little time to apprehend Clegg before he vanished once more, they stated in 2023.

Yet when that position was rejected as unconstitutional three years later by the Supreme Court, prosecutors shifted strategy and had Concord detectives state they would have located Clegg and the material without the flawed searches. They had simply been incorrect, assuming Verizon handled police requests with warrants more slowly than those without warrants, according to the testimony.

Friday ruling will probably face another appeal to the Supreme Court. Clegg lawyers opposed holding the April hearing and contended Kissinger already possessed sufficient information from the 2023 pre-trial record.

The New Hampshire Attorney General Office released a short statement Friday recognizing the decision.

We are pleased with the court ruling. The defendant has a right to appeal this ruling to the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and out of respect for the process we will have no further comment, the statement reads.

The Reids were slain while hiking in Concord in April of 2022. At the time, Clegg was staying in a tent near the trail. He was not considered a suspect initially, but destroyed his campsite and left New Hampshire when police started examining the area after the killings. Clegg was sought on a burglary warrant in Utah at the time.

Police detained Clegg in October of 2022, months after the murders, through the cell phone records. The records directed detectives to the Burlington, Vermont public library where Clegg was using a public computer. During his arrest police took a 9 mm Glock pistol, $7,000 in cash, and a Romanian identification card. At the time, Clegg held a ticket under a false name to fly to Germany. That flight was set to depart two days after his arrest.

Clegg asserted his innocence throughout the trial, and no motive has ever been provided for why he killed the Reids. He had never encountered the couple, and there is no indication they were robbed or otherwise disturbed during or after the shooting.