The Latest: Man pleads not guilty in 1979 Reno-area killing
RENO, Nev. (AP) — The Latest on a not guilty plea by an Arizona man accused of killing a woman in northern Nevada in 1979 and named by prosecutors as suspect in at least two other late-1970s slayings (all times local):
2:10 p.m.
Prosecutors in Nevada are tying a 73-year-old Arizona man to two unsolved Reno-area killings in a bid to keep him in jail following his indictment in the bludgeoning death of a California woman more than 40 years ago.
Charles Gary Sullivan’s defense attorney, David Houston, didn’t argue for his client’s release Tuesday after Sullivan pleaded not guilty to murder in the 1979 bludgeoning death of 20-year-old Julia Woodward.
However, Houston says he doesn’t believe DNA evidence presented to a grand jury in August ties Sullivan to Woodward’s slaying.
Sullivan remains jailed without bail pending another hearing in January.
In Nov. 7 court filing, state Attorney General Aaron Ford and prosecutors identified Sullivan a suspect in the killings of two other women in the Reno area: a 23-year-old in 1979 and a 17-year-old in 1978.
Sullivan isn’t charged in those cases.
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9 a.m.
Prosecutors are branding an Arizona man a serial killer in a bid to persuade a Nevada judge to deny him bail until his trial in the killing of a California woman more than 40 years ago.
Defense attorney David Houston says 73-year-old Charles Gary Sullivan will plead not guilty Tuesday and challenge DNA evidence that prosecutors say ties him to the 1979 bludgeoning death of 20-year-old Julia Woodward outside Reno.
Sullivan was arrested in August in Flagstaff, Arizona. He had been convicted of a 2007 sex attack on a woman in Northern California.
A filing this month by prosecutors calls Sullivan a suspect in the slayings of two other Reno-area women: a 23-year-old in 1979 and a 17-year-old in 1978.
He’s not charged in those cases.
