VIRGINIA — Two and a half years after she first heard the long-awaited word, Gina Haggard was back in a courtroom late Friday afternoon hoping for a repeat.
Tightly squeezing her husband’s hand as Judge Robert Friday read the form submitted by the jury, she could finally let out a sigh of relief.
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Guilty.
“Total vindication,” Haggard said moments later. “Total vindication.”
The Virginia jury took about 4 ½ hours to find Michael Allan Carbo Jr. guilty of raping and killing Haggard’s mother, Nancy Daugherty, in 1986 — the second time he has been found guilty of the crime, as he was granted a new trial by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
Carbo, standing with his attorneys as Judge Robert Friday read the verdict just before 5 p.m., immediately collapsed into his chair and began sobbing.
Convicted of two counts of first-degree murder while committing or attempting to commit criminal sexual conduct, he will face a mandatory life sentence with the possibility of parole after 17 years.
“It’s been a horrible five years, to lose my son,” Barbara Jenkins said outside the courtroom. “I thought it would be different this time. … He wouldn’t take the plea bargain because he didn’t do it.”
Carbo was charged in 2020 after DNA tied him to the cold case for the first time.
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But, unlike the first trial, this time the defense was allowed to advance a theory that another man, Brian Evenson, was responsible for the crime — an assertion that prosecutors dismissed as relying on “cherry-picked” evidence and ignoring science.
“They smeared Nancy's name in the mud, they kicked Brian in the nuts, and we still ended up getting a guilty verdict,” Gina’s husband, Dave Haggard, said. “And they deliberated for a shorter period of time than the last guys. So yeah, it feels damn good.”
Prosecutor: Carbo ‘took what he wanted’
Daugherty, a 38-year-old mother of two, was found strangled in her bed at her Chisholm home on July 16, 1986. A nursing home worker and ambulance service volunteer, she had been planning an imminent move to the Twin Cities to study for a paramedic career.
The case went unsolved for decades, even as police considered more than 100 possible suspects and gathered DNA samples to compare against those left at the crime scene. It was only after genetic genealogy research that Carbo was first identified, and later confirmed as a match for semen and scrapings under the victim’s fingernails.
That Carbo, then 18, had sex with Daugherty that night was undisputed. But the defense claimed he was “blackout drunk” and had no memory of consensual sex, while prosecutors said he killed Daugherty as a means to commit rape.
“Mr. Carbo squeezed the life from her neck and he took what he wanted,” Deputy St. Louis County Attorney Jon Holets told jurors in his closing argument. “And then he forgot — or so he told the police.”
Defense attorney Bruce Williams, however, attempted to cast guilt on Evenson — a man who acknowledged having an affair with Daugherty a few years prior and maintained strong feelings for her until her death.
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“Brian Evenson was the last person to see Nancy Daugherty,” Williams said. “He was the first person to find her. He had the motive, he had the opportunity and he took it. He saw Mr. Carbo getting exactly what he wanted and was shut down so many times. It pissed him off.”
Some physical clues were left at the scene. Outside was an area of matted down grass, Daugherty’s keys and some vomit. Inside, an apparent struggle in the kitchen left her eyeglasses under the dishwasher.
Holets argued the evidence showed Daugherty was so scared of her attacker that she ran outside in her socks, which were later found with grass stains. He said they struggled in the yard before Carbo brought her back inside to rape and kill her.
Two girls in a nearby house also reported hearing sounds of a struggle that appeared to start outside before moving inside.
“The defendant left a string of clues for investigators and jurors to follow,” Holets said.
Defense makes case against Evenson
But Williams contended Carbo and Daugherty had consensual sex in the yard — an act witnessed by a jealous Evenson, who then returned to kill her. Notably, he said, the only object missing from the house was one earring from a set Evenson had given her for Christmas in 1982.
In a closing statement laced with sarcasm, the defense attorney was critical of the police investigation and testing procedures by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. But he primarily pointed the finger at the alternate perpetrator, saying he carefully plotted his steps on July 16 to avoid suspicion.
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Evenson also had written Daugherty numerous letters over the years, stating in one heavily cited by the defense: “There are times that I think about you that I get so mad I could wring your neck.”
And he told the Chisholm police chief in 1998 that he often wondered if he subconsciously woke up in the middle of the night and killed Daugherty — a comment he testified last week was “casual conversation” between friends.
“That wasn’t a statement,” Williams contended. “That was a confession.”
Holets, though, reiterated that Evenson had been highly cooperative with investigators over the years, hoping to find out who killed his friend. He voluntarily provided hair, blood and saliva samples, hand prints, and kept in touch with authorities in between at least eight interviews.
He asked jurors whether it was reasonable to think the 38-year-old mother was having “blackout unprotected sex with a puking 18-year-old” in her front yard, in full view of neighbors.
And significantly, the prosecutor said, forensic evidence left at the scene showed Daugherty never got up from her bed after the sexual assault.
“They can’t be separated,” Holets said. “They are tied together. Her murder is a means to her rape.”
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Return to ‘normal’ for family
Judge Friday tentatively scheduled sentencing for March 4.
Outside the courtroom, Williams said the defense was disappointed but “we have to respect the system,” while attorneys will explore any potential issues for another appeal.
Gina Haggard said she has “mixed feelings” on having to endure a second trial, but she thanked prosecutors Holets and Chris Florey for their dedication to the case.
“It doesn’t seem that both sides have an equal opportunity,” she said. “It’s very much biased to one side.”
The Haggards, who live in Park Rapids, celebrated the 2022 verdict with a huge backyard bonfire. They said they’ll likely find a way to celebrate the occasion again, just on a smaller scale.
But after more than 38 years of pursuing justice for her mother, Haggard acknowledged the tragedy will always be a major part of her identity.
Asked how she feels about that, she simply responded: “Normal.”
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This story was updated at 7 p.m. Jan. 31 with additional information and reaction to the verdict. It was originally posted at 5:08 p.m. Jan. 31.
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