BY KATHY CHANG
Staff Writer
NEW BRUNSWICK – Dr. Bradley Miller told the jury of 12 women and four men that one day his life went from being a partner at a Morristown fertility clinic, married with three children and having a mistress on the side, to being involved in a murder investigation.
Miller told the jury of his three-year affair with Melanie McGuire, the 34-year-old former fertility clinic nurse, who is on trial for killing her husband, William McGuire, in their Woodbridge Center Plaza apartment and later dismembering his body, almost three years ago. McGuire, who resides in Brick Township, has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her and remains free on $2.1 million bail.
The affair began when McGuire was 38 weeks pregnant with her second son in 2002 and ended in June 2005. Miller testified that he bought two pre-paid cell phones for the two of them to communicate. He said they would call each other 10 to 20 times a day.
“We were probably both at fault,” said Miller. “We would be flirtatious toward each other and exchange e-mails. We confided in each other. I was in love with her.”
Miller said he and McGuire would discuss being together in the future and buying a house and having kids together. Miller said they discussed divorcing their spouses.
“Melanie told me she was concerned of divorcing Bill,” he said. “She was afraid he would take the kids away and she would never see the children again.”
Miller said William and Melanie McGuire had come over to his home for cookouts and he had seen them at holiday parties. He said it bothered him when he saw William being affectionate toward Melanie.
Miller said that in April 2004, he was aware that the McGuires were purchasing a new home.
“Melanie did not think they would close on the new home,” said Miller. “We were discussing possibilities where she would move into a new apartment and then tell Bill that she was going to divorce him. She would live for a few months on her own and then I would divorce my wife, but not right away.”
On April 28, 2004, Miller said he talked to Melanie on the phone multiple times.
“Around 4 p.m., she called me and told me that they just closed on the house,” said Miller. “I became angry and told her to rip up the papers. If she was going to get divorced from Bill, moving into a new home did not make sense.”
McGuire called Miller on her way home from the closing of the home.
“She told me, ‘Don’t worry, everything will be fine,’ ” said Miller. “I could hear Bill in the car on his cell phone.”
Miller said that around 9 p.m. on April 28, 2004, McGuire told him that her husband was sleeping on the couch and when he woke up they would discuss the house and that she would tell him that she wanted a divorce and would tell me in the morning how it went.
At 9 a.m. on April 29, 2004, McGuire called Miller.
“She was upset and told me about the fight that they had,” he said. “She said her heart was jittery and was racing.”
Miller called in a prescription of Xanax for McGuire, which is effective in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorders, anxiety with depression, and panic disorders.
McGuire told Miller that she was staying at the Red Roof Inn in Edison because she did not want to go back to the apartment just in case her husband came back to the apartment. Miller said he spoke to McGuire 20 to 30 times during the period of April 29 and April 30, 2004, but did not see her.
“She told me that she wanted to go to court and file for a restraining order and go back to the apartment and put things away,” he said.
Around 5 a.m. on May 1, 2004, Miller visited McGuire at the Red Roof Inn. Miller said he did not see anything physically wrong with McGuire.
“She was tired and a little out of it,” he said. “She just went back to bed when I got there.”
Later that same day, they had lunch together at Roosevelt Park in Edison.
Miller said he did not see McGuire from May 2 to May 5, 2004, but did talk to her numerous times on the phone.
The jury learned that McGuire did not tell Miller about the purchase of the .38-caliber handgun on April 26, 2004.
During the period of June and July 2004, McGuire told Miller that she purchased the gun for her husband because he wanted one to protect the family, and she told him that on the night of April 28, 2004, she drove down to Atlantic City to find her husband’s car and move it.
“She said she didn’t want to tell me earlier because she was angry and upset that her husband left the marriage and kids,” Miller said.
“When she found the car, she said she took the cell phones that she found in his car and threw them out. By that time, she said she was tired and took a cab back to Woodbridge. On April 29, she felt better after sleeping and took a cab back down to Atlantic City to find her car and drove back to the Red Roof Inn.”
Miller told McGuire that unless they find the two cab drivers who drove her to Woodbridge and Atlantic City to back up her story, people would not believe her.
Miller also learned that McGuire went down to Delaware on May 4, 2004, to shop for furniture.
In May 2005, Miller agreed to consensually tape Melanie McGuire with the New Jersey State Police.
“I believed that she had nothing to do with murdering her husband and this would be the way that would prove that she did not kill her husband,” he said.
Miller made two consensual calls to McGuire and asked her if she would swear on her children that she did not kill her husband. McGuire swore to it.