Jury Convicts New York Man for 1993 Killing Following Third Trial in the Case

Brian Scott Lorenz, right, sits with his defense attorney Ilann Maazel, left, in court in Buffalo, N.Y., before closing arguments in his second retrial for the 1993 killing of Deborah Meindl, on April 22, 2026. Derek Gee/The Buffalo News via AP, File

A jury on Friday convicted a man in the 1993 killing of a woman near Buffalo, ending his third trial after a legal odyssey that has stretched on for decades.

Brian Scott Lorenz, 56, was originally convicted in 1994, along with another man, James Pugh, of murdering Deborah Meindl. The 33-year-old nursing student and mother of two had been stabbed dozens of times and strangled inside her home in Tonawanda that year. Her body was found by her 10-year-old daughter.