 It was established at the trial that afterwards, Warren Kimbro, a resident of the house, McLucas, and national Panther field marshal George W. Sams, Jr. had driven Rackely to the marshes of Middlefield, Connecticut, where Kimbro and McLucas had each shot Rackley, on Sams' orders.Sams testified that national Panther leader Bobby Seale, who had been speaking at Yale University the day previous to the murder, had personally ordered the killing, but there was no corroborating evidence, and Seale was acquitted by a hung jury.According to Michael Koskoff, one of the lawyers for McLucas,

Many of the people in the New Haven chapter of the Panthers were middle class.