A Question Of Murder

Did John Maloney Get A Fair Trial?

(CBS) 
As for the fire, Paulus argued at trial that Maloney set it to cover up his crime. But Berry's arson experts insist this didn't happen. "There is no question that the investigation conducted by the state is junk science," says Berry's expert, James Munger.

The state speculated that Sandy's vodka may have been used to start the fire, and pointed to the burn pattern in front of the couch as proof. But Munger, who didn't buy that theory, set a couch similar to Maloney's on fire. Almost immediately, the cushions melted, and it's the melting foam, not any accelerant, that cases the telltale burn pattern.

"There's absolutely no question in my mind John Maloney is an innocent man," says Munger.

So why didn't Maloney's own lawyer, prominent Defense Attorney Gerry Boyle, make these arguments? "To have gone before a jury and said this was an accident, I think, would have been malpractice," says Boyle. "And I would have been sanctioned by an appellate or supreme court."

Boyle dismissed the apparent suicide notes and the basement evidence, and instead came up with a third explanation: Sandy was murdered by Maloney's girlfriend, Tracy Hellenbrand, the same woman who set him up in a Las Vegas hotel room.

"Tracy Hellenbrand is an indefatigable liar and she is a killer," says Boyle.

But Maloney remembers things quite differently. He says he told Boyle "numerous times" that he believed Sandy's death was an accident. So why didn't he fire Boyle? "I didn't have another $100,000 to pull out of mid-air to pay another attorney," says Maloney.

In a report rejecting a complaint the Maloney family filed against Boyle, Wisconsin state officials called Boyle's defense strategy "reasonable."

So, the defense attorney in this case ended up battling his own client. And the prosecutor ended up going to prison, which left behind one more bizarre twist.

"One of the last acts that Joe Paulus did as district attorney was try to get that file out of the district attorney's office," says Balskus. "He ordered someone to basically get rid of the file."

Balskus says the file was transferred from office to office, and most of it has never been found: "We have very little of the original file. It'd probably be impossible to try him again."

But all of this controversy ironically has given Maloney another chance.

"You do what you have to do to get along and survive," says Maloney, who is now working as a prison custodian.

It's a menial job, and it pays only about a quarter an hour. But he says it keeps him from dwelling on the days, months and now years he's been away from his three sons.

After the Paulus corruption scandal, and amid questions raised by investigators like Berry and local reporters, the state ordered a review of Maloney's case. For a year, the investigation was conducted by respected attorney Stephen Meyer, who was about to release his conclusions on the Internet.

Maloney's two youngest sons and other relatives wait for news at Maloney's sister, Ginny's, house. When it finally appeared, it was 23 pages long.

At a news conference later that morning, Meyer said: "Sandy Maloney was manually strangled. There is no question in my mind. You can't get away from that. That's the bottom line, here."

This was a direct contradiction of Berry's theory, and devastating news for the family. "It's unbelievable that this could have happened," says Maloney's sister, Ginny.

Meyer emphasized that he wasn't charged with deciding whether Maloney was guilty or innocent, but only with determining if this death was an accident or a murder. And on that score, he said, 79 autopsy pictures, which Berry’s experts didn’t have, led him to only one conclusion.

"It wasn't an accident. And I think the sooner everybody puts that to rest, the better this case will proceed," says Meyer.

Only manual strangulation, says Meyer, could have caused the deep injuries to her neck. They could not have been caused by a flimsy electrical cord fashioned into a noose.