John Kelley
A sex offender who sexually assaulted and strangled a 17-year-old girl in 1986 in a case that went cold for years pleaded no contest to first degree murder Thursday and will spend the rest of his life in prison, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.
John William Kelley, 52, will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for killing Annette Thur when he returns to court Aug. 21, according to prosecutors.
Kelley decided he did not want to proceed with trial after Judge Jonathan Karesh ruled Wednesday that a confession he made would be admissible in court.
Neither Kelley nor his attorney Lisa Maguire stated his reasons for deciding to forgo trial, according to prosecutors.
Sheriff’s investigators arrested Kelly in August 2012 after the county crime lab reran DNA from fluids recovered from the crime scene and hit on him. Kelley, a registered sex offender who had lived in Oregon and California, resided in Ben Lomond at the time of Thur’s death and, nearly a decade later, in 1995, was convicted of rape in Humboldt County.
Thur was last seen early Dec. 6, 1986, leaving a party in Boulder Creek with the intention of hitchhiking. Later that day, a tourist stopping to check out the view from Skyline Boulevard just north of Alpine Road spotted her body 8 feet down the embankment with a denim jacket over her head and torso. Investigators determined Thur had been sexually assaulted, beaten and possibly strangled but were never able to pinpoint a viable suspect.
Prosecutors believed Kelley picked Thur up and took her back to his Ben Lomond home where she was sexually assaulted. Kelley, then 23 and married, was accused of strangling or smothering Thur and leaving her body in the ravine.
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Dirk van Ulden said:
Dirk van Ulden said:
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