Jun 11, 2009 7:57 pm US/Pacific
Man To Stand Trial In 1975 SJ Rape, Murder
SAN JOSE (CBS 5 / BCN) ―
A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday there is sufficient evidence to hold a man to stand trial for the 1975 rape and murder of a San Jose woman.
Edward Dees, 60, is charged with the long-unsolved killing of Sandra Howard on April 21, 1975.
At the conclusion of the preliminary hearing that began in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Monday, a June 22 arraignment date was set.
Howard was a 23-year-old newlywed who lived with her husband in the 200 block of Richfield Drive in San Jose. After she failed to show up to her job as a teacher at a local kindergarten, police found her in her apartment, lying on her bed strangled with a necktie and stabbed with a knife, according to prosecutor Jeff Rosen.
Investigators found semen stains on the sheets, according to Rosen, but DNA testing did not exist at the time.
In recent years, San Jose investigators began re-examining the physical evidence from cold cases, in hopes of finding new leads in DNA samples. Technicians examined evidence from Howard's case and on Dec. 14, 2006, reported a match with Dees, according to San Jose police reports.
Dees' information was in the state database as a result of his prior felony convictions. He has been in custody since 1975 on multiple rape convictions, according to Rosen.
Dees has pleaded not guilty to Howard's murder.
(© CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Bay City News contributed to this report.)
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