Denver: The prosecutor will try for the second time to punish a former candidate Guberno Idaho Longshot in kidnapping and killing a 12-year-old Colorado girl after their first attempt ends with a hung jury and the court shows.
Steven Pankey, 70, will try again for the kidnapping and murder of Junelle Matthews, which disappeared in 1984 and who was still uncovered more than three decades later, according to minutes from the status hearing on Wednesday.
After the three-week trials ended in early November, a 12-member member judge found Pankey guilty of false reporting, mild violations, but could not reach a voice verdict on more serious charges.
Judge Las Timothy Kernbe District then declared a persecutor and ordered the pankey held on $ 5 million bonds.
Matthews disappeared in December 1984 after he was revealed at his home in Greeley, Colorado, about 50 miles north of Denver, after singing at the Christmas concert.
In 2019, a digging crew who worked on a pipeline found the remains of the girl on the site of remote oil and gas in Weld County, police said.
He died of a gunshot wound in the head, said the authorities.
The prosecutor demanded that there was no direct evidence that connected the pankey with a crime, instead of relying on the burdensome statement they had said had succeeded for years, including details of the crime scene to be known.
Pankey lived in Greeley when Matthews disappeared and watched the girl and the other children walked home, according to the prosecutor.
Pankey testified at his trial that he did not kill the girl, and that he made details “to become a big man in this case.” Pankey did not succeed in running for Governor Idaho on the Constitutional Party ticket in 2014, and lost the second governor’s offer in the Primary Election of the Republic of 2018.
The new trial date was not yet established.