1977 Cold Case Murder Heads To Weld County Jury
GREELEY, Colo. (CBS4) - A cold case murder from 1977 is now in the hands of a Weld County jury.
Marcello Maldonado-Perez, 52, is accused of raping and killing 22-year-old Mary Pierce, who was kidnapped from her job as a 7-Eleven clerk. Her naked body was dumped in a cornfield.
The jury began deliberating the 33-year-old murder case at the Justice Center in Greeley Wednesday afternoon after closing arguments in the morning.
Maldonado-Perez listened as prosecutors used their closing arguments to remind jurors that DNA tests show the accused murderer's blood on Pierce's 7-Eleven work shirt and that DNA from semen on her body also matched Maldonado-Perez.
Maldonado-Perez was just 19 years old at the time. His defense attorney closed by recounting Maldonado-Perez's testimony Tuesday -- that two men kidnapped him along with the eventual murder victim and forced him -- at gunpoint -- to rape Pierce before he eventually escaped, thereby explaining the blood and the semen.
Prosecutor Anthony Perea called Maldonado-Perez's story of himself being kidnapped more than three decades ago "unrealistic."
"He told his version with zero emotion. He ran for 32 years until that fateful knock at the door, and now he's lying," Perea told the jury.
The defense also argued that two brothers who for years were the prime suspects in Pierce's murder are still better suspects than Maldonado-Perez, despite the DNA evidence that led to his arrest decades after the murder.
