Alec McNaughton: The Murder of Cathy, Trial, and Sentence

Alec McNaughton is a former Oklahoma attorney who is serving life in prison plus 20 years in Georgia for the February 15, 2009 stabbing murder of his wife, Cathy McNaughton, at their home in Sharpsburg, Coweta County. A jury convicted him of malice murder and aggravated assault in August 2010, and the Georgia Supreme Court upheld the conviction in 2012.¹

What Happened on February 15, 2009

McNaughton called 911 around 7:30 p.m. to report that he had found Cathy bleeding on the floor of their Sharpsburg home.² She had been stabbed more than 30 times and had defensive wounds. Coweta County Sheriff’s Investigator Jason Fetner described the scene as looking “like a horror house.”³

Cathy had been attacked from behind while working at her desk, then attacked again after turning around. Forensic evidence placed her death around noon, roughly eight hours before her body was found. There were no signs of forced entry. Her jewelry and other valuables were untouched, ruling out robbery. Only Cathy’s and Alec’s fingerprints were recovered, and all the blood at the scene was hers.²

How His Alibi Fell Apart

McNaughton told investigators he had left home between 11:00 a.m. and noon to visit his mother, who lived 40 to 50 miles away, and did not return until 7:30 p.m. To back up the story, he left a voicemail on the home answering machine at 2:33 p.m. saying he had arrived at his mother’s house.³

Cell tower records showed that 2:33 p.m. call connected through a tower less than two miles from the McNaughton home, and 40 miles from his mother’s residence. Investigators also noted that McNaughton claimed he had knelt beside his wife’s body and tried to help her, yet had no blood on him despite a saturated crime scene.³

He was arrested on February 27, 2009, twelve days after the murder. Fetner later recalled McNaughton telling him, “There’s not a snowball’s chance in hell that a jury would convict me on this.”³

The Evidence Cathy Left Behind

Inside a closet, investigators found three disposable cameras with undeveloped film. When the film was developed, it showed Cathy with bruises and scratches on her face and arms, taken about three years before her death.³ With the cameras were handwritten notes describing three occasions when, Cathy said, her husband had beaten her and threatened to kill her.²

Cathy had also kept a pros-and-cons list about her marriage. Under pros: “sweet, loving, handsome.” Under cons: “no sex, depression, bankruptcy.”³

A tape McNaughton himself had secretly made of an argument captured Cathy telling him: “If you ever raise your hand to me again, to even threaten to strike me, it is over… I’ve got pictures. I’ve got affidavits.”³

Motive

Cathy, a longtime Delta Air Lines employee who had recently taken a position as a financial advisor with Edward Jones, had been the primary earner in the marriage.⁴ Alec had told her he was having trouble obtaining a Georgia law license and was working as a car salesman. He owed significant back taxes and was deeply in debt. Major John Lewis of the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office said there was a “possibility that he had married her just for her financial resources.”²

In the months before her death, Cathy had told family and friends she was contemplating divorce.¹ Prosecutors argued that when McNaughton learned she planned to leave him, he killed her.²

The Trial

McNaughton was tried in Coweta County Superior Court before Judge Quillian Baldwin.⁵ The prosecution’s case rested on the cell tower evidence, Cathy’s own documentation of abuse, and witness testimony describing a lifelong pattern of violence.

Sandra Harmon, a counselor for Delta employees, testified that in May 2006 Cathy had come to her disheveled and bruised, said Alec had attacked her outside their home the day before, and asked to be photographed. Harmon told the jury there was “absolutely no confusion whatsoever” that Cathy identified her husband as the attacker.³ Her testimony authenticated the closet photographs and defeated a hearsay objection.

Three of McNaughton’s former wives testified about domestic violence across his earlier marriages. The specific acts described included beating one wife, throwing another into a glass table, and pulling a shotgun on a third.² The court admitted the accounts as “similar transaction” evidence showing a pattern of unprovoked violence against spouses during marital difficulty and when women tried to leave him.¹

McNaughton’s sisters, Anita “Nina” Cramer and Julie Holden, testified about their childhood, which Cramer described as “severe, regular daily torture and abuse,” including being hit and locked in bathrooms.² Investigator Fetner said the siblings had contacted police unsolicited, describing “extreme fear” of him and voicing their suspicion that he had killed Cathy.³

McNaughton chose to testify. Prosecutor Kevin McMurry later said McNaughton’s tendency to “underestimate everyone else” and “overestimate his own abilities” made him vulnerable on cross-examination, and that he was able to trap McNaughton in his lies on the stand.³

Verdict and Sentence

After two days of deliberation, the jury convicted McNaughton of malice murder and aggravated assault in August 2010. The aggravated assault count was based on the prosecution’s argument that many of the 31 stab wounds were inflicted after Cathy was already dead. He received life in prison plus 20 years for the aggravated assault.⁶

Appeal and Jailhouse Attack

In its April 24, 2012 decision in McNaughton v. State, the Georgia Supreme Court denied his appeal and upheld the conviction. The court held that the ex-wives’ testimony was properly admitted to show his “course of conduct” and “bent of mind,” supported by police reports, 911 recordings, and McNaughton’s own admissions.¹

The opinion also addressed an incident while McNaughton was awaiting trial: he stabbed a cellmate, Jose Cruz-Hernandez, in the neck with a pencil. The trial court admitted the attack as additional similar transaction evidence, and the Supreme Court agreed, finding that an unprovoked assault with a sharp instrument bore sufficient similarity to the charged crime.¹

McNaughton remains in the custody of the Georgia Department of Corrections.²

1
vLex. McNaughton v. State
2
Oxygen. Alec McNaughton Fatally Stabs Wife Cathy McNaughton Georgia
3
CBS News. Murder Victim Cathy McNaughton Speaks From the Grave to Help Police ID Her Killer
4
Legacy.com. Cathy McNaughton Obituary
5
Enid News & Eagle. Bond Has Been Set for McNaughton
6
TV Insider. The Real Murders of Atlanta Cathy McNaughton