A woman who was sentenced to life in prison in the killings of her mother and sister had her conviction vacated Wednesday, after her defense attorneys alleged a juror on the case had inappropriately used her own rifle at home to test out evidence presented in the case, according to court filings and the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office.
Megan Hargan, 39, of West Virginia, was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder nearly five years after police discovered Pamela Hargan, 63, and Helen Hargan, 23, dead from gunshot wounds in the McLean home they had shared with Megan Hargan. Her conviction was vacated by Fairfax Circuit Court Judge Brett A. Kassabian, though prosecutors said they intend to retry the case.
“We are disappointed that a juror’s inappropriate actions led to this double murder conviction being vacated,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano said in a statement on Wednesday. “We are still committed to getting justice for the victims of this crime.”
In late October, Megan Hargan’s defense attorneys argued that the court should set aside the verdict and grant a new trial, arguing that a juror on the case had used information that was not properly admitted at the trial.
The defense attorneys alleged in a court filing that after they presented evidence that Helen Hargan’s death was a suicide, the juror went home and used her rifle to see if that was possible.
According to an affidavit signed by an investigator for the defense, the juror “stated that she was unable to figure out a way that the sister [Helen Hargan] could have committed suicide” because of the weight and length of the rifle. The juror told the investigator, Catherine Searl, that she disclosed her experiment to the rest of the jury during their deliberations.
“Clearly,” Senior Assistant Public Defender Bryan T. Kennedy wrote, “a juror may not properly receive any information about a case he is hearing except in open court and in the manner provided by law.” Kennedy argued that the juror’s experiment might have prejudiced her verdict or that of other jurors with whom she shared the information.
The Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office argued that the motion to set aside the verdict should be denied and that jurors were allowed to rely on their common sense.
“We do not require people to shut off their brains when they’ve left the courthouse,” prosecutors wrote.
Attempts to reach the juror were not immediately successful.
Fairfax County police had initially asserted that Helen Hargan had killed Pamela Hargan before turning the gun on herself. But detectives ultimately concluded that Megan Hargan had killed both, and that the motive was financial.
Prosecutors alleged that the day before the killings, Megan Hargan fraudulently tried to transfer nearly $420,000 from her mother’s bank account to her title company, but Pamela Hargan’s bank put a freeze on her funds.
Megan Hargan then shot Pamela Hargan and Helen Hargan to keep them from interfering with her plan, prosecutors alleged. Prosecutors said she staged the scene inside the home, sent fake text messages and made up a false story that painted Helen Hargan as the culprit.
