Defense suggests police have wrong man in 1976 cold-case homicide

Apr. 29—WEATHERLY — Charges against a New York man in a 44-year-old homicide case were bound to Carbon County court following a 2 1/2 -hour preliminary hearing Wednesday, despite arguments from the defense that police have made a "huge reach" in their arrest, and that a serial killer from the same era should be questioned instead.

Magisterial District Judge Joseph Homanko also denied a request for bail for Luis Sierra, 63, of Ozone Park, New York, who has been held in the Carbon County Prison in Jim Thorpe without bail since his extradition to Pennsylvania two weeks ago.

Sierra is accused of killing his girlfriend, Evelyn Colon, 15, who was pregnant with a nearly full-time girl at the time. Authorities said Colon was strangled to death and dismembered, and her body packed into suitcases that were tossed off Interstate 80 at mile marker 272.8 to the banks of the Lehigh River in East Side borough. Her remains and that of the fetus were found on Dec. 20, 1976.

No one knew her identity until DNA revealed it this March. Pennsylvania State Police at Troop N said that same information led them to interview and arrest Sierra.

Wednesday's preliminary hearing was set to start at 10 a.m., but there was a 45-minute delay as the court arranged for a stenographer. Approximately 30 people packed into the courtroom, including family, media and those involved in the investigation. Sierra, graying and partly bald, sat quietly throughout the entire proceeding. The only time Sierra spoke was to tell a reporter he was innocent when she questioned him as he was led out of the courtroom when the hearing ended.

Brother testifies

Luis A. Colon, 61, of Stroudsburg, Evelyn's brother, testified that his family was friends with Sierra and they grew up next to each other in Jersey City, New Jersey. When Evelyn announced she was pregnant and moving into an apartment with Sierra, their mother gave her blessing.

He said the last time he saw his sister was the beginning of December 1976 before she moved out. Then, a letter arrived in January, which would have been after Beth Doe's remains were found. It was stamped from Stamford, Connecticut, and said Evelyn had delivered a 9-pound baby boy and that they had moved to Connecticut, but would contact family later.

But the family never heard from Evelyn, and believed she didn't want to contact them. When they showed the letter to police twice in the 1970s, Luis Colon said they were told the family didn't have a missing person's case because the letter indicated Evelyn moved.

That letter was later destroyed in a house fire, Luis Colon said.

The family still searched for her on their own but never found her, he said.

Defense attorney Emmett Madden of Jenkintown questioned Luis Colon's recollection of the letter, to which Luis Colon said three people read it the day it was received in January 1976 and afterward police saw it and so did an uncle.

"I know exactly what it said," Luis Colon testified, indicating that his mother died believing Evelyn never made contact with family because she was angry with them.

'Inconsistencies' from defendant

Trooper Brian Noll testified to his role in the investigation, which involved poring over previous investigators' work and a six-hour recorded interview with Sierra at his home on March 31, for which Noll was present for two hours.

Madden objected to Noll's recollection of the interview, saying it was his interpretation of Sierra's answers. While Madden didn't suggest listening to the entire interview in the courtroom, he said he wanted to review it ahead of time. Carbon County District Attorney Michael Greek assured Madden he would have the recording for trial and said the purpose of the hearing was to prove that a crime was committed, and likely by Sierra.

Homanko allowed Noll to continue offering summary of the interview.

He said Sierra gave multiple different versions of what happened the last day he saw Evelyn, and each of them involved the couple arguing. One involved him going to work and coming home to find Evelyn gone. In another account he thought she went out for a walk and he began to worry the following day when she didn't return. Another involved him telling police he grew jealous when Evelyn compared him to another man named Lenny during the argument. Yet another version involved him waiting a week or two before he went to her parents' house to check on her, compared to a previous account where he told police he went to her parents' house the day she left.

In each of the latter versions, Sierra said no one answered his knock on the door. He didn't make any more attempts to find her or the baby, Noll said.

"Inconsistencies are significant," the trooper told the court while under cross examination.

'The Torso Killer' instead?

Madden questioned if Noll ever considered Evelyn was a victim of Richard Cottingham, "The Torso Killer." Madden said he operated in northern New Jersey around the time Evelyn went missing, killed young women and dismembered them, and admitted to killing around 100, though he was charged with far fewer deaths.

Madden asked Noll if he planned to question Cottingham.

Noll said he didn't plan to "because the killer (of Evelyn Colon) is seated there to your left."

Defense: No physical evidence

In closing arguments, Madden said nothing the commonwealth offered leads to Sierra being the murderer. There was no physical or forensic evidence, he said, only details that the pair dated and she left, Madden said. Sierra was even a family friend and the Colons had no reason to suspect him, Madden said.

He called the arrest of Sierra, a retired bus driver, a "huge reach" as he asked Homanko for a dismissal.

Greek, however, said evidence in 1976 was much different than today, specifically forensic work. There was more circumstantial evidence back then, and even so he believes his office proved a homicide happened and Sierra probably did it. Strangulation is a "very personal crime," Greek said.

He also questioned why Sierra didn't immediately recognize the name Evelyn Colon — the mother of his child — when troopers interviewed him this year. Greek also noted the letter that was sent to the Colon family after Evelyn was killed, and that Sierra was the last person to see her.

It will be up to a jury to determine if Sierra is guilty based on a reasonable doubt, Greek said.

Homanko recessed for a while to review his notes before returning to the bench and bounding the case to county court.