Lawyers for the man found guilty of the seemingly random killing of a Concord couple in 2022 are asking the New Hampshire Supreme Court to overturn his conviction, arguing that investigators overstepped their authority when they accessed Logan Clegg's cell phone data without a warrant.
In April 2022, authorities say Clegg killed Stephen and Wendy Reid on a walking trail near their home before he vanished, prompting a sprawling investigation. Six months later, federal investigators notified Concord police that Clegg, who was also wanted on a probation violation related to separate charges in Utah, had purchased a one-way plane ticket to Germany departing from New York several days later.
Fearing that Clegg would flee the country, police requested that Verizon turnover cell phone location data on an emergency basis, without first applying for a warrant. That information ultimately led to Clegg’s arrest in South Burlington, Vermont.
During oral arguments on Wednesday, Audriana Mekula, an attorney for the New Hampshire Department of Justice, said authorities believed there was limited time to arrest Clegg, and that applying for a warrant could allow him to slip through their fingers.
“That phone could have been turned off at any time,” Mekula told justices. “That phone could have moved at any time. That phone could have been destroyed at any time.”
But Clegg’s attorney, Thomas Barnard with New Hampshire Public Defender, said that it often takes just a matter of hours to obtain a search warrant, and that Clegg’s flight wasn’t scheduled to depart for several more days when authorities contacted Verizon.
Additionally, Barnard disputed the emergency scenario described by prosecutors, telling justices that Clegg had no way of knowing authorities were looking for him.
“The discovery of Clegg's phone number did not give rise to a likelihood that evidence would be destroyed, for the simple reason that Clegg was not aware that the police had discovered his phone number,” said Barnard.
While cell phone carriers will provide certain location information on an emergency basis for law enforcement, Concord police said in their experience, requesting cell phone data through a standard search warrant can take several weeks. Clegg’s attorneys disputed that timeline, noting that police could have used the same emergency request process with a warrant, as well.
Before Clegg’s trial in 2023, a lower court judge sided with prosecutors, allowing the evidence of Clegg’s whereabouts to be used at trial despite the lack of a warrant. Justices on the state Supreme Court will now weigh whether that decision was made in error, and if Clegg, who is serving a 100-year prison sentence, should have a new trial.
Cans of soda lead to arrest
At the time of the Reids’ murders, Clegg was living in a tent in the same patch of woods in East Concord. Police interviewed him in the days following their disappearance, during which he provided a fake name.
Then he vanished, leaving behind a charred tent site and melted soda cans and propane tanks.
Police reviewed months of surveillance footage at a nearby Walmart and Shaw’s supermarket, and identified him through a series of purchases, including the tanks. Authorities, still not sure of his identity, began to refer to him as the “Mountain Dew Man,” according to court documents.
After months of searching, a breakthrough came in the form of an alert from federal Homeland Security officials, who said that Clegg, through an alias, had purchased a plane ticket departing on Oct. 14, 2022.
The same day that tip arrived — Oct. 11 — Concord police contacted Verizon to ask for Clegg’s location data. Authorities filed a subsequent request asking for the cell phone numbers of anyone who had recently contacted Clegg. The following day, detectives eyed Clegg inside a supermarket in South Burlington, before trailing him to a nearby library. Search records would show that Clegg had googled “Concord NH News” on a library computer shortly before he was taken into custody.
A subsequent search of his backpack — performed after police obtained a warrant — revealed Clegg was in possession of a fake Romanian passport, $7,000 in cash, and a gun that prosecutors alleged could have been used in the murders, though ballistics tests never confirmed it was a match.
During a 13-day trial, Clegg’s attorneys admitted that he was intentionally keeping a low profile, as he was wanted on an outstanding warrant in Utah after allegedly stealing a firearm.
