U.S. Supreme Court declines to review case of Jerry Westrom, convicted in Jeanie Childs' 1993 murder
MINNEAPOLIS — The Supreme Court of the United States has denied a petition to hear the case of Jerry Westrom, the man convicted of first-degree murder in the death of Jeanie Childs.
On Monday, the court announced it denied Westrom's petition for a writ of certiorari, which is a request from people who are not satisfied with the decision of a lower court.
In 2022, a jury convicted Westrom of first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree intentional murder in the 1993 death of Childs.
Last year, Westrom appealed the jury's conviction to the Minnesota Supreme Court, who affirmed the first-degree murder conviction. However, the court vacated the second-degree murder conviction, citing a violation of a Minnesota statute.
The statute says in part, "Upon prosecution for a crime, the actor may be convicted of either the crime charged or an included offense, but not both."
A lesser degree of the same crime is considered an included offense.
Westrom was charged in the decades-old case after investigators followed him to a hockey game and grabbed a napkin that he threw in the trash. They used the napkin to obtain his DNA.
Childs was 35 years old when she was found stabbed to death in her south Minneapolis apartment.
