After more than a week of testimony from detectives, crime lab workers, relatives, former Lawrence, Massachusetts residents and more, the defense attorney in Marvin “Skip” McClendon’s murder trial is expected to start calling their witnesses on Monday.

McClendon, 76, is charged with the Sept. 11, 1988, murder of Melissa Ann Tremblay, 11, of Salem, N.H., whose body was found in a Lawrence rail yard.

The girl had been beaten, stabbed and killed. Her left leg was severed by a train.

Tremblay was known to play in the adjacent neighborhoods while her mother and her mother’s boyfriend frequented the LaSalle Social Club at 397 Andover St.

She was last seen alive by a railroad employee and a pizza delivery driver, authorities said.

Tremblay’s mother has since died. However, the girl does have surviving relatives and childhood friends living in the area.

The case was cold for 34 years prior to McClendon’s arrest on April 27, 2022, in Cullman County, Alabama, where he had moved after living and working in Massachusetts. He had worked as a handyman and as a Massachusetts prison guard.

Prosecutors have said DNA under Tremblay’s fingernails match McClendon and Tremblay’s throat was slashed by a left-handed assailant. McClendon is left-handed, according to his relatives.

But Henry Fasoldt, McClendon’s defense attorney, said the entire criminal case is “based on assumptions,” including leaps made with the DNA, and that McClendon had “absolutely no reason” to kill Tremblay.

It’s unclear if McClendon will take the stand in his own defense.

Fasoldt has previously described Rebecca Greenwood, 72, McClendon’s younger sister, as a strong source of support for his client. For much of the trial, Greenwood has sat in the courtroom gallery behind McClendon.

However, Greenwood is under a sequestration order, which means she is not allowed to be in the courtroom when certain witnesses testify.

Late this week and without jurors present, prosecutors spoke with presiding Judge Jeffrey Karp about Greenwood violating the order by remaining in the courtroom when a state police detective testified and later, when she asked her sister-in-law, Karen McClendon, about her testimony in the courtroom hallway.

Greenwood, who lives in Alabama near her brother, was called as a prosecution witness late this week.

Assistant District Attorney Jessica Strasnick asked her if she or her brother had used her computer and/or cell phone to research Tremblay’s cold case after her brother was asked to provide a DNA sample in 2021.

Greenwood originally said no but later changed her answer — testifying she looked up information on her cell phone when she accompanied her brother to a cardiology appointment prior to his arrest.

“It was one newspaper article I read to him while we were on a car ride,” Greenwood said.

Other prosecution witnesses during the trial have included:

—Retired Massachusetts State Trooper Kenneth Kelleher, Retired Lawrence Police Detective Thomas Murphy, State Police Lt. Peter Sherber and Agent Joe Parrish of the Alabama State Bureau of Investigation.

—Daniel Hatch, who was a 13-year-old homeless boy in Lawrence in 1988. He believes he saw Tremblay on the night she was murdered and that she had encountered two men in the area.

—Numerous male cousins of McClendon who testified they were not in Massachusetts when Tremblay was murdered.

—Dr. Vincent Tranchida, a forensic pathologist and medical examiner who consults with law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He testified Tremblay’s throat was slashed from behind by a left-handed assailant.

The jury is expected to get the case to start deliberations by Wednesday.

If convicted of first degree murder, McClendon faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Staff reporter Jill Harmacinski may be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter/X @EagleTribJill.

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