3rd family member sentenced in man’s ‘trust game’ murder

WELCH, W.Va. (AP) — A North Carolina woman has been sentenced to the maximum 40 years in prison in a West Virginia “trust game” murder that involved her father and sister.

Anna Marie Choudhary, 33, of Boone, North Carolina, was sentenced Wednesday in McDowell County Circuit Court for her January guilty plea to second-degree murder in the 2019 death of John Thomas McGuire, the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reported.

The body of McGuire, 38, of Owatonna, Minnesota, was found months later in a grave at the now-former residence of Choudhary’s father, Larry Paul McClure Sr., in the McDowell County community of Skygusty.

McClure, 55, of Pendleton, Kentucky, was sentenced last year to life in prison without the chance for parole for first-degree murder. Choudhary’s sister, Amanda Michelle Naylor McClure, 31, of Chisago City, Minnesota, previously received a 40-year sentence for second-degree murder.

According to earlier testimony, Amanda McClure and McGuire, who were in a relationship, were living in Indiana and were having problems with a vehicle. Larry McClure and Choudhary drove there to bring them to West Virginia. All four were using drugs.

Choudhary said at her sentencing that Larry McClure enticed McGuire to play a “trust game” in which McGuire’s feet were tied up. When he tried to get out of the bindings, Amanda McClure hit him in the head with a wine bottle, Choudhary said.

Larry McClure testified that McGuire was tortured for three days. At one point he had a garbage bag placed over his head and, eventually, he was strangled, McClure said. McClure also testified that McGuire was buried in a shallow grave behind his house.

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