STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) - A man has pleaded not guilty in a decades-old attack against two older women in Starkville, Mississippi.
The Commercial Dispatch reports Michael Wayne Devaughn pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of capital murder and sexual battery. He was indicted this week in the 1990 slaying of 65-year-old Betty Jones and rape of 81-year-old Kathryn Crigler, who died from her injuries.
The nearly 30-year-old cold case was revived last year when Starkville detective Lt. Bill Lott sent suspect DNA to a private genetics company that searches genealogy databases for matches.
The DNA was taken from a rape kit that had been collected from Crigler. District Attorney Scott Colom says prosecutors haven’t decided whether to seek the death penalty.
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Information from: The Commercial Dispatch, http://www.cdispatch.com
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