WALLKILL — Wednesday was the end of the six-day period that the Orange County District Attorney’s Office had to present its case to a grand jury for an indictment against Edward V. Holley, who is charged with murdering Megan McDonald in 2003. But the DA’s office did not move forward with a preliminary hearing in Wallkill Town Court, which means Holley will be released from jail this week.
But the case against Holley has not been dismissed.
Holley, 42, of Wawayanda, was already serving time in the Orange County Jail for an unrelated drug charge when State Police arrested and charged him last week with second-degree murder. He will finish the remaining few days of his sentence on the unrelated charge before he is released on his own recognizance to await further proceedings in the murder case.
Later on Wednesday, Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler announced he was refusing himself from the case and requesting a special prosecutor be appointed, citing a conflict dating back to when he was in private practice. According to a news release from Hoovler’s office, he previously represented a person of interest to the Orange County District Attorney’s office in the McDonald investigation. That person died before Hoovler was elected district attorney.
James A. McCarty, supervising judge of the felony criminal parts of the state’s 9th Judicial District, appointed Julia Cornachio as the special prosecutor. According to the Orange County DA’s release, Cornachio has more than 30 years of experience as a prosecutor and has handled numerous homicide cases in both the Bronx County District Attorney’s office and Westchester County District Attorney’s office.
As to why the deadline to present the case against Holley to the grand jury was missed, the release noted that “it is not feasible for any prosecutor to present a matter of this size…
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