Charges downgraded in Ayer fatality case
Medical examiner says he made error
A state medical examiner's mistaken conclusion in the autopsy of a 19-year-old man who died after a fight with twin brothers in Ayer has led prosecutors to downgrade the criminal charges against the twins, according to a report in the Lowell Sun.
William Zane, a state medical examiner, in 2005 determined that Kelly Proctor of Ayer died as a result of brain swelling, which was caused by blunt-force trauma to the head.
But in testimony at the trial of Peter and Daniel McGuane, Zane last week said he had mistakenly determined that Proctor's brain had swelled, saying that the way the organ had been stored in a container between the time of Proctor's death and Zane's examination had made it look as if it had swelled.
"I made a mistake. . . . I was wrong," Zane testified, according to the Sun.
Zane also incorrectly identified the race of Proctor, who was black, as white on the autopsy report, according to the Sun.
The Middlesex district attorney's office had charged the McGuane twins with first-degree murder, but last month downgraded the charges to manslaughter. Testimony indicated that Proctor and the twins got into a fight after fireworks in Ayer on the evening of July 4, 2005.
The trial is expected to resume tomorrow. The maximum prison sentence for manslaughter is 20 years, while first-degree murder is punishable by a mandatory life sentence in prison.
