MCLEAN, Va. — A jury in Fairfax County on Friday found Megan Hargan guilty of killing her mother and sister in McLean in July 2017.
Megan Hargan faced first-degree murder and firearms charges for the deaths of 63-year-old Pamela Hargan and 23-year-old Helen Hargan.
This was the second trial after Judge Brett Kassabian overturned Hargan’s conviction in November after he learned a jury member re-enacted the defense’s claim that Helen shot herself, which is considered a misconduct.
"At the end of the day, real justice would be for these people to be back with us. In many ways, the justice system getting a guilty verdict doesn't feel whole but at least we can give the surviving family members a sense of accountability and provide a path to healing," Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano said Friday.
Defense attorney Bryan Kennedy maintained it was Helen who killed her mother using a rifle before turning the gun on herself by pulling the trigger using her toe. During his closing arguments, he said the prosecution failed to exclude that as a possibility.
Prosecutor Kelsey Gill described Megan as a liar and entitled woman who was jealous her mother was going to buy her sister a new home. She painstakingly covered the timeline of events which she used to argue that Megan killed her mother by shooting her twice in an attempt to fraud her of hundreds of thousands of dollars to close on a new home in West Virginia.
Gill tried to explain to the jury that after Helen reportedly told her boyfriend on the phone what Megan did, Megan shot her while she begged for her life in the bathroom.
“Leaving Helen alive would be too big of a risk,” said Gill. “Everything would be for nothing if Helen didn’t keep her mouth shut.”
Gill brought up how gun residue was found on the hands of Megan and how the rifle belonged to her partner, which she then placed inside Helen’s car. She said after shooting Pamela, Megan began to impersonate her mother and try to transfer the money again.
She accused Megan of staging the scene by placing the rifle in between Helen’s legs to make it appear she died by suicide.
Kennedy stressed to jurors that the gunshot wound to Helen was not on the top of her head, but just above her hairline. He said there were no prints on the trigger because Helen was wearing socks.
Kennedy argued the residue on Megan’s hands came from a different gun with a higher caliber. He reiterated that unlike his client, the only DNA evidence on the gun was Helen’s fingerprints the at end of the barrel. Despite the Commonwealth detailing a bloody scene, Kennedy added that Megan’s clothes had no blood from Pamela.
As far as motive, the defense said Helen had a dispute with Pamela about her boyfriend moving in, fearing she tried to remove her from her boyfriend.
In his efforts to cast reasonable doubt, Kennedy also blasts the commonwealth for not acknowledging how Helen’s fingerprints were found on the gun case.
“This is a circumstantial case,” he said. "They’re trying to stretch evidence far past the limitations.”
He also questioned the timeline of events and wondered why Helen wouldn’t leave the house and why tell her boyfriend not to call 911.
The judge explicitly instructed the jury not to conduct their own investigation or experiment.
Deliberations began Thursday morning. She will be sentenced Jan. 26, 2024.