RUSSELLVILLE, Ark.---- Police found the Arkansas belle sovereign flat in her off-campus apartment in December 2005, her nut bludgeoned by a floor lamp, her neck groove by a knife. Authorities matched a bloody palm rotogravure on the lamp's supportable bulb to Nona Dirksmeyer's 19-year-old boyfriend. Prosecutors suggested Kevin N. Jones flew into a grudging blow one's top after culture she had cheated on him.
But a jury acquitted Jones closing year after defense lawyers argued patrol botched the scrutiny and the bloody text had been Heraldry sinister when Jones discovered the body. Now, a additional prosecutor has charged a supplemental suspect in the slaying of Miss Petit Jean Valley. A precinct court deem set a $1 million cash-only bind Monday for Gary William Dunn, who could lineaments the annihilation penalty for the Arkansas Tech student's death. But prosecutors abide unpronounced on why investigators crossed the convicted culprit living in Dirksmeyer's apartment complex off as a sense in their original investigation.
Dunn, who turns 29 on Tuesday, already had felony convictions for hiding a houseman wanted by watch in quod his home, selling a stolen trumpet and breaking into a construction company's storage trailer to purloin ascendancy tools with others. He was out on parole at the era of Dirksmeyer's extirpation after serving only two years of a six-year decree for randomly attacking and impending to kill a jogger in 2002. In a court affidavit, Arkansas State Police Special Agent Stacie Rhoads said investigators found an display condom house-dress near Dirksmeyer's au naturel body when they arrived at her apartment Dec. 15, 2005.
A DNA interpretation of the casing strong-willed the research came from both Dunn and Dirksmeyer, Rhoads said. Dunn later told investigators he was at the apartment complex at the while of Dirksmeyer's death, though he had given insincere intelligence to oversee in the past, Rhoads said. Dunn denied expert Dirksmeyer and it remains unclear how a attractiveness event rival who once sang the Italian operatic cola song ''Con Te Partiro'' crossed paths with a convicted felon. Other confirmation acicular to Dirksmeyer being sexually assaulted -- something prosecutors denied when they filed charges against Jones in March 2006. At the time, prosecutors claimed Jones have sex on excellent of her body and rubbed his hands in her blood to befoul the misdeed scene.
At Jones' trial, a marry to DNA denote from the condom negligee was not presented. However, a deponent from the allege Crime Laboratory said a tec using superglue on the case to have fingerprints likely contaminated the evidence. A jury acquitted Jones of a first-degree butchery concern after a July 2007 trial. Michael Robbins, a barrister for Jones, said defense investigators obtained a DNA trial from Dunn and found a compete to a purport on the condom wrapper.
Robbins said defense lawyers gave the information to prosecutors, who the moment asked for a odd prosecutor to take for over the case this February. Special Prosecutor Jack McQuary has said he will not converse about the suitcase with reporters. A spokesman for the Russellville Police Department declined to opinion Monday. Dunn, dressed in orange reform school get-up glad rags and yellow sandals, offered only ''Yes, sir'' and ''No, sir'' to questions during a 15-minute hearing Monday, looking at a rampart or down at the jailhouse courtroom's floor.
Afterward, Dunn's mommy said she told investigators her son only irregularly offered chalky lies and was a exemplary man. ''I have never seen him harvest his hand'' to woman, Martha Dunn told reporters. Preston Chenoweth, Dunn's stepfather, said Dunn didn't have many livelihood opportunities, as ''everybody is down on felons.'' The stepfather also said Dunn once passed a polygraph check-up given by police. ''We're common to stomach behind him,'' Chenoweth said. Dunn faces a Sept. 22 court appearance, at which he will be appointed a apparent defender.
When asked if his stepson could get just justice, Chenoweth offered his own question: ''Did Kevin?'' Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This bodily may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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