Murder Charges Dropped in Old Vermont Case

On Wednesday August 21 prosecutors dismissed a serious aggravated murder charge. The defendant was charged of killing his wife almost 20 years ago. He is John Grega, who is age 50.

Grega is a former NASA contract engineer. He was convicted in the early 1990s after his wife was found dead. On September 12, 1994 investigators had found his wife sexually assaulted and strangled in a West Dover condominium. They had been vacationing there with their young son.

Grega served the next 18 years in prison. In August 2012, new DNA evidence had been collected. There were skin cells from an unknown man found within the victim's body. A judge thus overturned the conviction.

Prosecutors, however, had previously refused to drop the case. Instead they filled a new aggravated murder charge. This was in advance of a scheduled retrial.

A court-imposed deadline pushed the testing of DNA evidence in the case. Prosecutors then abruptly changed their course and dropped charges.

The attorney general's office and the state's attorney filed a joint notice of dismissal. The decision allowed Grega to stay home and care for his mother, Marion Grega, who was recently given a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and therefore needs care.

According to Grega's defense team, the decision was long overdue. Circumstantial evidence had been used to convict Grega before, along with his own conflicting accounts. He admitted that some of his wife's injuries could be linked to rough sexual acts, but none of the eyewitness testimony or physical evidence could link Grega directly to the crime.

While the state maintains that it could try to press charges again, Grega's attorneys stated that they are ready to fight any such accusations. Then again, some commentators might feel that such accusations would not be in the state's best interest. Not only could they make prosecutors look bad, such accusations would also be a bad political move for individuals in the state's attorney's office if they turned up false again. Therefore, Grega's case could have been shut with this motion after all.