Jury In Greeley Convicts Man In 1977 Slaying
GREELEY, Colo. (AP) ― A Weld County jury on Thursday convicted a Florida man of raping and killing a 22-year-old woman in 1977.
The jury found Marcello Maldonado Perez guilty of first-degree murder, kidnapping and sexual assault in the stabbing death of Mary Pierce.
Pierce was abducted from a Greeley convenience store. Her body was found two days later.
The Greeley Tribune reports that prosecutors say DNA links Perez to the slaying.
Perez says he and Pierce were abducted by two men who forced him at gunpoint to rape her. Prosecutors called his story "outlandish."
He says he escaped but didn't tell anyone what happened. He says he didn't know Pierce was killed until his arrest in Port Charlotte, Fla., where he lived at the time.
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