Logan Clegg appears in a booking photo in October 2022. (South Burlington Police Department)
A young New Hampshire man will almost certainly die in prison for the seemingly nonsensical murder of an elderly and retired couple who had just gone out for a hike when they were fatally shot and killed.
In October, Logan L. Clegg, 27, was found guilty on all of the charges against him, including four counts of murder in the second degree for the April 2022 slayings of Stephen Reid, 67, and Djeswende “Wendy” Reid, 66. He was also found guilty on four counts of falsifying evidence and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
No motive was ever offered for the killings.
“I truly hope he engages in rehabilitation, but there is no chance — if this sentence holds — that he will spend a day outside of the prison,” Superior Court Judge John Kissinger Jr. said, according to a courtroom report by The Associated Press.
In line with prosecutors’ requests, the court sentenced Clegg to two terms of 50 years to life in prison to be served consecutively.
“Logan Clegg is a stone-cold, violent murderer, nothing more,” the judge said, according to a courtroom report by Manchester-based ABC affiliate WMUR. “He shot and killed Steve and Wendy Reid for no reason. His statements today ring hollow. He deserves nothing less than a sentence that fully reflects the magnitude of his crimes, and for that reason, I’m going to fully impose the sentences as recommended by the state.”
The Reids left their home at the Alton Woods apartment complex in Concord at 2:22 p.m. on April 18, 2022. They went for a walk and went into the area of Broken Ground Trails off Portsmouth Street.
“Family and friends did not see or hear from them after that,” authorities said. “The Reids’ bodies were recovered in the early evening of April 21, 2022, from a wooded area in close proximity to the Marsh Loop Trail.”
They were shot multiple times, investigators said.
An obituary for the Reids described the couple as a “dynamic” humanitarian duo who “brought out the best in each other.”
Members of the fallen couple’s family addressed the court and the defendant on Friday, according to WMUR.
“Despite this passage of time since their murders, waves of grief continue to crash over me with the same intensity as the moment we learned they were both dead,” sister-in-law Barbara Reid said.
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The victim impact statements were also angry.
“You have done nothing to contribute to society, and you never will,” Kellan Forey, the couple’s niece, told the since-condemned man. “I pity how weak you are, how empty you must be and how you have wasted a perfectly healthy life.”
The defendant has maintained his innocence throughout the case against him. That didn’t change on Friday.
“Those detectives did everything in their power in the last year to cheat me out of getting a proper trial,” Clegg told the judge during his sentencing hearing. “That fact should be obvious to anyone biased against me or not.”
Kissinger rubbished claims of police misconduct.
Still, Clegg was adamant.
“If the Supreme Court agrees with me, then I may very well get a new trial,” he added. “No man with any pride or dignity gives up just because he loses a single battle, especially when he knows he’s in the right. If it does come to a second battle, I can promise with confidence that my innocence will be made clear and that I will win.”
Clegg was homeless at the time of his arrest on two warrants out of Utah at a public library in South Burlington, Vermont, in October 2022. At the time, he was deemed a “person of interest” in the murder of the Reids. Formal murder charges were filed less than a week later.
The Reids’ assailant was first dubbed “Mountain Dew Man” by local authorities over the number of empty Mtn Dew Code Red cans littering his campsite and because of an initial piece of evidence used in the case. When investigators first encountered Clegg at his campsite while searching for the missing couple, he identified himself as “Arthur Kelly” and held several cans of Mountain Dew Code Red.
But when the bodies of the couple were found the following day, police returned to his campsite and saw that he’d packed up and left. When authorities could not find records for someone named Arthur Kelly, he became known by his soft drink of choice.
Jerry Lambe and Alberto Luperon contributed to this report.
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