NOT GUILTY: Prominent RI Woman on Trial for Death of Ex-Husband in MA

NOT GUILTY: Prominent RI Woman on Trial for Death of Ex-Husband in MA

Penelope “Penny” McGee, a native Rhode Island woman who has been on trial in Massachusetts for the past two weeks for the death of her ex-husband, was found not guilty by Judge Beverly Cannone on Wednesday.

The Judge rendered her decision immediately after closing arguments.

McGee had waived a jury.

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McGee was from a political family in Rhode Island. She and her ex-husband had gotten into a major argument and physical altercation in at his home in January of 2020.

Their daughter had witnessed the event and testified that McGee was the aggressor against her ex-husband, Andrew Savitz, a former top consultant to Massachusetts Governor and presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.

Zuzzie Savitz gave damaging testimony against McGee last Tuesday, calling her mother’s behavior “frantic, erratic, [and] angry.”

In the opening argument, the prosecutor, Jennifer Blair, Assistant District Attorney for Norfolk County, told the court, "You're going to hear from Andrew Savitz's daughter, Zuzzie Savitz. She's going to tell you what she saw happen that night on January 28th of 2020. Zuzzie heard her mother come over to the home at 40 Meadowbrook Road in Brookline, where she was living with her father and her younger brother, Harry. Zuzi Savage heard her parents arguing that night when her mother came to the house, and she could hear yelling and screaming, and when she went downstairs, she could see that her parents were in an argument.”

“She heard something break which we later found out the court will find out was a ceramic bowl. You'll see pictures of that broken bowl but Zuzzie is going to tell you she heard something break and she went back upstairs to get her phone to call 911," said Blair in her opening statement.

“She's going to tell you that she got her phone from her bedroom, called 911, and as she was coming down the stairs, she could see her parents in the hallway by the end of the stairs at the house towards the front door,” said Blair.

“And she saw her mother hitting and shoving her father against a wall where there was a sliding closet. And you're going to hear the 911 call, Your Honor. You're going to hear Zuzzie telling her parents to stop,” Prosecutor Blair added.  “And then in the middle of that phone call, Zuzzie’s going to tell you she heard her father, she saw her father collapse to the ground. And Ms. McGee started trying to give him CPR. Zuzzie was calling the ambulance to come quickly.”

 

State's Case Unravelled

However, the state's case was undermined on cross-examination and never recovered over the next few days of the trial.

McGee’s attorney, Larry Tipton, had asserted that McGee was defending herself in the altercation.

And Judge Cannone, who has been overseeing the controversial Karen Read case, determined that McGee was not responsible for Savitz’s death.