Daniel Paquette: Killed in self-defense?

[Kane]

It's been nearly three months since Eric Windhurst was arrested and charged with the 1985 murder of Danny Paquette (a case that UM profiled in 1990). Although the trial begins later this year, it has been announced that the defense will argue that Windhurst killed Danny in self-defense.

The claim is that Danny's stepdaughter, Melanie Cooper, feared that Danny would rape and kill her, and she therefore asked Eric to kill him. But as the article at the following link suggests, convincing a jury of the self-defense claim won't be easy.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/p...603020325/1031

As one could determine from the UM segment, Danny's divorce was less-than-amicable. UM mentioned that he was arrested after arriving at his ex-wife's property.

A few months ago, Danny's brother Victor said he had heard about the allegations of sexual abuse. But as far as he knew, there was no evidence to support them. So the allegations were not common knowledge until many years later.