Prosecutors in western New York dropped their effort Tuesday to retry James Pugh, whose 1993 murder conviction in the killing of Deborah Meindl was overturned, just as jury selection for the new trial was set to begin. Pugh, now 63, served 26 years for the death of Meindl, a 33-year-old nursing student and mother of two who was stabbed and strangled in her Tonawanda home. He was paroled in 2019, and a judge ordered a new trial in 2023 after new testing failed to find his DNA at the scene and evidence suggested prosecutors had withheld materials that could have aided the defense.
Erie County prosecutors told the court they could no longer meet the burden of proof due to missing evidence and unavailable witnesses more than 30 years later, and the judge granted their request to dismiss the charges. Prosecutors said they will continue pursuing a retrial for co-defendant Brian Scott Lorenz, whose second retrial is scheduled for April after a mistrial last October. Pugh expressed disappointment with the outcome, saying in a statement that neither he nor Meindl’s family received justice. Lisa Meindl Payne, who was 7 when her mother was killed, acknowledged the weaknesses in the prosecution’s case and hugged Pugh at the courthouse, emphasizing the family’s continued search for the truth.
Authorities initially investigated Pugh and Lorenz under the theory that Meindl was killed during a home burglary, based in part on a confession Lorenz later recanted. At one point, former prosecutors suggested convicted murderer Richard Matt, who escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility in 2015 and was killed by a federal agent, might have been responsible, though that theory was dismissed by officials. Pugh now works in painting and contracting, while Meindl Payne continues to push for answers regarding her mother’s death. The DA’s office declined to comment on calls from Pugh’s lawyers to reopen the investigation.