Amanda McClure, 31, from West Virginia plead guilty to second degree murder for the Valentine’s Day slaying of her boyfriend John McGuire, 38, in 2019. McClure committed the murder so she could then marry her biological father.
McClure was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
The guilty plea and sentencing came on October 1, 2020 after a gruesome case was presented to the court.
Amanda McClure’s father, Larry McClure, 55, and sister Anna Marie Choudhary, 32, also took part in the murder.
Lead investigator in the case, West Virginia State Police Trooper K.M. Saddler, testified outlining the gruesome details.
He said:
“On or about February 14, Mr. John McGuire was struck in the head with a bottle of wine, then tied up, and then injected with two vials of methamphetamine.”
The prosecution stated that all three took part in the murder.
They buried McGuire in a shallow grave on their property after the killing. They later moved the body for reburial in Skygusty, West Virginia.
Larry and Amanda McClure then had sex at the location.
Three weeks later Amanda and Larry McClure went across state lines to Virginia and were married by a United Methodist Church minister. Larry used another name in the marriage paperwork.
Larry McClure was sentenced to life in prison for his part in the murder.
Amanda who had a history of drug abuse attempted to explain the murder, shifting blame onto her father’s influence. She also begged McGuire’s mother, Karen Smith, for forgiveness.
However Smith was not interested in her mea culpa, as the grieving mother said:
“She and her sister and her daddy are going straight to hell.”
“I can’t forgive her right now. Maybe later, but I can’t forgive her right now.”
Amanda told the court:
“I have to look at myself every day, my family didn’t raise me to be this way.”
“I’ve not only hurt John’s family, I’ve hurt my own family.”
“My dad didn’t want anyone else near me. John told Larry that he loved me and we were going to get married.”
“I wish I could bring John back. He was a good man.”
Presiding Judge Ed Kornish did not accept the explanation or remorse calling the crimes especially “heinous.”
Judge Kornish said:
“After killing John, you dug him up later. When you all dug him up his body was dismembered and stakes of some kind were driven through his body…”
“Then you reburied him…there was no reason for this.”
Larry McClure Sr, 55, was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole in August after he admitted to bludgeoning and strangling McGuire to death.
McClure Sr’s other daughter, Anna Choudhary, still faces her own first degree murder charges.
