Man pleads not guilty to killing boy in 1981

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (AP) - A convicted sex offender charged last year in the 1981 slaying of a 7-year-old West Virginia boy has pleaded not guilty.

The Exponent Telegram reports 54-year-old William Clyde Jeffries appeared by video in Harrison Circuit Court Thursday after being indicted last week on a murder charge in the death of Conrad Roger “C.R.” Diaz. Judge Thomas A. Bedell set an April 29 date for the start of Jeffries’ trial.

A criminal complaint from the decades-old case says Diaz suffered “multiple injuries resulting in his death” and doesn’t mention any motive. Jeffries would’ve been 17 at the time of Diaz’s death. He was arrested last year.

The State Police sex offender registry says Jeffries was convicted in 2002 of sexual assault and abuse of a male between the ages of 13 and 17.

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Information from: The Exponent Telegram, http://www.theet.com