Update: Engleman guilty of second-degree murder

A Roanoke jury weighing the fate of a 17-year-old girl charged with the first-degree murder of her ex-boyfriend could not reach a verdict late Thursday night.

Melanie Elaine Engleman maintains that she fatally stabbed 19-year-old William Christopher Linn in self-defense after he attacked her. At the time, she was 16.

The jury began deliberating in the hard-fought case about 4:30 p.m. After 2 ¹₂ hours, the jury told Roanoke Circuit Court Judge Charlie Dorsey it was deadlocked.

Defense attorney Chris Kowalczuk asked for a mistrial, a motion the judge denied. Instead he sent the jury back to keep deliberating. About 9:30, when jurors informed Dorsey they still could not reach a verdict, he allowed them to retire for the night. The jury will resume deliberations today.

The stabbing occurred June 2 after Engleman and two friends went to the home of Tai Reid, another teenage girl whom the 19-year-old Linn was seeing at the same time he was seeing Engleman.

Wednesday, the trial's second day, Engleman took the stand in her own defense, saying she went to confront Reid after the two cursed each other over the phone. But no one answered the door.

As Engleman and her friends were leaving, Linn came out, yelled at them, then asked to talk to her alone.

They walked to a gravel lot and started to argue. Then Linn grabbed her in a headlock and started hitting her, Engleman said. She thought he was going to kill her, she testified, so she stabbed him.

As Thursday's proceedings began, Kowalczuk called in Melissa Caldwell, the woman who drove Engleman to Reid's house. Caldwell corroborated Engleman's version of events, including her account of the stabbing, in almost every detail. Until Caldwell's testimony, there had been no indication through the course of the trial that anyone else witnessed the stabbing.

Prosecutor Betty Jo Anthony challenged Caldwell's testimony, saying she had told three different versions of the story to police, including a version in which she said it was too dark for her to clearly see what happened.

The prosecutor accused Caldwell of being willing to tell whatever lie Engleman wanted her to in order to help her friend.

A friend of Linn's, 19-year-old Isaac Karnes, testified that he once saw Engleman threaten to kill Linn while brandishing a large butcher knife.

Engleman returned to the stand and denied that any such incident ever took place.

In her closing arguments, prosecutor Alice Ekirch described Engleman's actions the night of the stabbing as classic premeditated murder.

"This is not a self-defense case," she said. "Everything was well-thought, well-planned, and, from the defendant's perspective, well-executed."

She addressed extensive evidence presented by the defense that painted the victim as dangerous, violent and temperamental. "Chris Linn would probably never have won a citizenship award. He had his share of problems, but he didn't deserve to die like this at the age of 19."

She said the case was all about "sex, drugs, teenage drama" and jealousy-driven revenge. She called Engleman's version of events a fabrication tailored to match the evidence in the case. "If she lied to her mother, and she lied to the police, is it unreasonable for you to think she would lie to 12 strangers to save her neck and avoid responsibility in the death of Chris Linn?"

Kowalczuk asserted repeatedly that Engleman clearly had no plan, that at most she wanted to confront Reid and had no intention of harming Linn. He mocked Ekirch's phrasing, saying, "I guess Melanie is Tony Soprano."

He disagreed with Ekirch's statement that Linn didn't deserve to die the way he did. "He brought that entirely on himself," he said. "This was a violent, controlling, manipulative young man."

He told the jury that Engleman was not guilty of any wrongdoing whatsoever. "Even without self-defense, the killing was not malicious," he said. "She was attacked."

Anthony said that Engleman and Linn were both self-centered, drug-abusing teenagers with criminal records and bad tempers, but added that Linn had also shown an affectionate and joking side.

She said if Linn was such a terrible person, then Engleman's actions in going to face him down were not those of someone afraid for her life.

Anthony said that no one knew how to push Linn's buttons like Engleman, and that she knew that by taunting him, he would come at her and come within range of the knife she had ready.

She asked the jury to find Engleman guilty and not send her a message that she can choose who she gets to kill.