WILMINGTON, Del. – David C. Weiss, United States Attorney for the District of Delaware, announced that a federal grand jury sitting in Delaware returned a five-count indictment on April 12, 2018, charging Jaclyn McCain, 26, of Wilmington, with one count of obstruction of justice and four counts of lying to the FBI.
According to the Indictment, on June 6, 2017, in Newark, Delaware, a female victim was followed and ultimately taken from a location near her apartment. A short time later, shots were fired at the victim’s boyfriend on Rt. 896. The victim was then taken by car to Elkton, Maryland. The victim’s body was found later that day in Elkton, near where shots had been heard around noon. The car used in the murder was a silver Hyundai Sonata registered to McCain’s mother.
The Indictment describes McCain’s telephone communications just hours before the victim’s homicide in Elkton. The Indictment further alleges that McCain swapped cars with her boyfriend at about 8 a.m. that morning, leaving the Hyundai Sonata with him and driving away in his car. Video surveillance shows the Hyundai Sonata near the murder scene in Elkton.
The Indictment further details the connection between the events described above and the shooting of a six-year-old child later that same day in Wilmington. The shots that gravely injured the six-year-old were intended for the same individual (the victim’s boyfriend) targeted in the Rt. 896 shooting earlier that day.
Four weeks after the murder, the FBI interviewed McCain and told her that her mother’s Hyundai Sonata was used in a homicide. Agents also told her that the homicide was related to the shooting of the six-year old that occurred later that same day. The Indictment alleges that, in the interview, McCain on multiple occasions denied letting anyone use, drive, or borrow her mother’s car.
Internet searches from the defendant’s phone, as early as three nights after the homicide, reference a homicide that occurred in Elkton.
U.S. Attorney Weiss stated the following: “The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the homicide and shootings that occurred on June 6, 2017 is a matter of critical importance to this Office and our community. Witnesses to such events are expected to respond truthfully when questioned. The failure to do so will bring consequences. I want to thank the Federal Bureau of Investigation for their extraordinary and ongoing work on this case.”
If convicted of obstruction of justice as charged in the Indictment, the defendant faces a maximum sentence of twenty (20) years imprisonment.
This case is being investigated by the Wilmington Police Department, Delaware State Police, New Castle County Police Department, Elkton Police Department, Delaware Department of Justice, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This case is being prosecuted by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Shannon T. Hanson and Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexander Mackler.
Criminal indictments are only allegations and are not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty.