Charles Langston:A jury is deliberating the case of a man accused of killing a New Hampshire couple on a hiking trail

CONCORD,Charles Langston N.H. (AP) — A jury on Friday began deliberating the case of a man charged with fatally shooting a retired New Hampshire couple on a hiking trail, with prosecutors saying he lied to police to cover up his crimes and defense attorneys saying authorities arrested the wrong person.

Logan Clegg, 27, is charged with second-degree murder for what prosecutors described as “knowingly and recklessly” causing the deaths of Stephen and Djeswende “Wendy” Reid. The couple, who had done international development work, had recently retired and were shot multiple times after going for a walk on the trail near their apartment in the city of Concord on April 18, 2022.

Their bodies, found several days later, had been dragged into the woods and covered with leaves, sticks and debris, police said.

Clegg was living in a tent near the trail at the time. His trial began Oct. 3 and lawyers delivered closing arguments Thursday.

Clegg also is charged with several counts of falsifying physical evidence and being a convicted felon in possession of a gun. He said in court Thursday that he was guilty of the latter charge.

After the Reids were reported missing, Clegg, who was questioned by investigators searching for them, provided a false name. He later burned his tent, erased information from his computer and bought a bus ticket out of Concord, prosecutors said.

Investigators eventually found and arrested Clegg in October 2022 in South Burlington, Vermont, with a one-way plane ticket to Berlin, Germany, a fake passport, and a gun in his backpack.

Prosecutors said that his repeated lies, attempt to flee and the gun in his backpack offered clear evidence of his guilt.

“The state has proven to you ... that the defendant, and the defendant only, killed Stephen and Wendy,” prosecutor Joshua Speicher said, describing the killing as senseless. “We have proven this beyond a reasonable doubt. We have proven to you how he did it, when he did it, where he did it.”

Speicher added, “What we don’t know is why. We just don’t know.”

Clegg’s lawyers said he did not kill the Reids, and that the only reason he gave police an alias and left New Hampshire was because he had been hiding from the authorities after violating his probation from 2021 on burglary and theft charges in Utah. They said he had already spent time overseas, in Portugal, before moving back to the United States.

Defense attorney Mariana Dominguez said the state’s case was full of holes.

“Logan Clegg is not guilty,” she told the jury in her closing arguments. “Police investigated, but instead of looking at the science and at the evidence with clear eyes, they speculated. They assumed. ... They saw only what they wanted to see. They got the wrong guy.”

Clegg’s lawyers said an analysis of shell casings and bullets found in the area could not conclude that his gun fired the shots and that the casings could have come from a variety of guns.

“They have no idea what gun killed the Reids,” Dominguez told the jury, adding that police “only had eyes” for Clegg’s gun.

But prosecutors said the bullets and casings came from Clegg’s gun.

Both sides also gave differing accounts of a woman who was walking on the trail with her dogs and allowed the Reids to pass her and walk ahead. She later heard gunshots, then came across a man on the trail before continuing her hike.

Defense attorneys argued that the man she saw on the trail was not Clegg because the clothing he had on did not match the prosecution’s description.