NORTHAMPTON — A Superior Court judge denied a defense attorney’s motion to independently examine the cellphone of murder suspect Jeffrey MacDonald following a lively debate in Hampshire Superior Court on Thursday.
MacDonald, a Wilbraham chef accused of murdering his wife at the Hotel UMass in April, appeared in court alongside his attorney Mary Saldarelli for a motion hearing before Judge Charles W. Groce III. He is charged with murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a family or household member (two counts), assault with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a police officer.
Prosecutors assigned to the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office are attempting to extract data from MacDonald’s cellphone in the weeks and months leading up to the alleged murder. Saldarelli, however, argued that the defense should be allowed to hire a forensic expert to independently examine the cellphone, allowing both the defense and prosecution to view the extracted data only at the court’s approval.
Saldarelli said that her expert has delineated in an affidavit why the government’s partial extraction of cellphone data could not be “trusted.”
“[The expert] confirmed that, in fact, this extraction doesn’t give us what we need to show that it is accurate. It’s missing certain details,” Saldarelli said. “The commonwealth wants to, in one breath, give me a flash drive supposedly containing my client’s phone extraction, and is saying, ‘we can no longer go forward with our analysis because of our efforts have failed.’ My expert is coming in and saying ‘Wait a minute, they haven’t done this the right way.'”
Groce, in response to Saldarelli’s argument, compared the commonwealth’s search warrant for MacDonald’s phone to a physical search warrant of a home. He reminded Saldarelli that she could always challenge probable cause for the search warrant in court later on.
“What you want me to do is stop them from executing a search warrant to allow a defendant to come into the house and look around and say, well ‘I don’t like this, and I don’t want you to touch that,’” he said. “That’s essentially what this is, because they already have a search warrant for this phone, so probable cause has already been determined.”
Assistant District Attorney Aidan Lanciani, who is prosecuting the case, argued that Saldarelli has challenged the accuracy of the search warrant before it was completed. She noted that should Groce approve the defense’s motion, the expert could potentially “alter” or “tamper with” evidence unknowingly while a search warrant is being conducted.
After Groce pointed out that Saldarelli’s request lacked legal precedent, she argued that “new law isn’t always bad law.” Groce ultimately denied the defense’s motion, thanking Saldarelli for the lively debate.
A statement of facts compiled by UMass Amherst Police Lt. James Sullivan states that police responded to reports of an “emergency taking place” at the Hotel UMass at around 7:42 p.m. the night of the alleged murder.
Police reported that a “violent struggle” had occurred in room 413 of the hotel, in which MacDonald fought with officers and later admitted to killing his wife.
“Given the significant nature of the female’s injuries, it seemed apparent to investigators that her injuries had resulted from a violent assault,” Sullivan wrote. “[After his arrest] Macdonald spoke with investigators, during which he admitted that he had intentionally beaten his [wife] to death using his hands, feet, as well as a variety of blunt objects, and that it was his intent to kill her in doing so.”
Jeffrey MacDonald worked as an executive sous chef at UMass and was named Chef of the Year by the American Culinary Federation in 2025. Emma MacDonald, 31, worked as a dining hall supervisor at UMass Amherst.
MacDonald is expected to next appear in court Wednesday at 10 a.m., where Groce will hear Saldarelli’s opposition to the prosecution’s motion to compel Jeffrey MacDonald to provide the government his phone passcode, as well as a matter Saldarelli raised in July, when she accused prosecutors of leaking discovery evidence to the press.
