Suspect in 1984 Murder on Trial

DALLAS (AP) _ The trial is underway for a prison inmate charged in the 1984 killing of a Southern Methodist University student in her off-campus apartment.

Donald Andrew Bess was already serving a life sentence when he was charged with capital murder in the death of Angela Samota two years ago.

Samota was 20 when she was found in her bed with multiple stab wounds. The case was unsolved for more than two decades. Authorities say they’ve since matched DNA evidence to Bess using technology that wasn’t available when the college student was killed.

The 61-year-old Bess is serving a life sentence for three unrelated sexual assaults.

Defense attorney Richard Franklin is told The Dallas Morning News that Bess may have raped Samota but that doesn’t prove he killed her.

 

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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