Trial begins for second man charged in 2017 Peabody double-slaying
Wes Doughty, 42, faces first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of Mark Greenlaw, 37, and stabbing death of Jennifer O’Connor, 40.
The trial of a Massachusetts man charged with brutally killing a Peabody couple in February 2017 began Monday.
Wes Doughty, 42, faces first-degree murder charges in the shooting death of Mark Greenlaw, 37, and stabbing death of Jennifer O’Connor, 40.
His full litany of charges includes two counts of murder, attempted arson, carjacking, kidnapping, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Doughty was initially also charged with raping O’Connor, but the Salem News reported the charge was dropped after another man involved in the crime asserted his Fifth Amendment right to not testify at Doughty’s trial.
Prosecutors said the home Greenlaw and O’Conner were killed in was a drug den, and the killing stemmed from a complex web of conflicts among people who lived there.
Doughty was one of two arrested in connection with the double slaying. His onetime co-defendant Michael Hebb was arrested shortly after the killings and pleaded guilty in October 2017 to being an accessory after the fact to one of the murders and the attempted arson.
Michael Hebb (center) was arraigned in 2017 for the Peabody double murder.
Hebb was sentenced to six to seven years in state prison, according to the Salem News.
Doughty’s arrest was not as straightforward. He is accused of carjacking a Honda Accord in Middleton shortly after the killings, tying the car’s driver up with a seatbelt, and then leaving him in Boston. Doughty then apparently drove to South Carolina, where he was arrested about a week later.
In the first day of trial, Essex County assistant district attorney Kate MacDougall described the slain couple as people who battled addiction but were ultimately just in the wrong place at the wrong time, Itemlive.com reported.
O’Connor’s father told the Boston Globe in 2017 that his daughter struggled with drug and alcohol use after serious health problems that began when she was about 5 years old.
MacDougall told the court Doughty shot Greenlaw once in the face with a shotgun, according to Itemlive.com. He then apparently stabbed O’Connor repeatedly, eventually slitting her throat.
Their bodies were found wrapped in plastic and carpeting, according to the district attorney’s office. A propane tank and and cans of kerosene sat nearby.
Police initially said the home was so messy that it was difficult to know how many bodies there were.
The trial was slated to continue Tuesday.
