DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The trial for a decades-old cold case in now underway in DeKalb County.
Channel 2′s Audrey Washington was in the courtroom on Tuesday when witnesses took the stand in the trial of Kenneth Perry.
Perry is accused of murdering a brother and sister in 1990.
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Prosecutors told the court that Perry stabbed John Sumpter to death inside Sumpter’s Stone Mountain apartment. They said he then raped and stabbed John Sumpter’s sister, Pamela Sumpter, at the apartment.
At the hospital, Pamela Sumpter reportedly described the suspect to detectives and told them the suspect was her brother’s friend.
“I believe she knew I was there and she said to me, ‘Mom, it was like a nightmare,’” Pamela Sumpter’s mom testified.
Pamela Sumpter died of her injuries weeks later, but not before doctors administered a rape kit.
Despite that evidence, the case went cold.
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But last year, the DeKalb County District Attorney announced that the case had been reopened and that DNA evidence linked Perry to the murders. A grand jury eventually indicted Perry.
Inside court on Tuesday, the State argued that evidence and Pamela Sumpter’s dying declaration about the suspect will prove Perry’s guilt.
“She was raped and brutalized, but she told police about her rapist,” the state prosecutor told the jury.
But the defense pushed back and said the DNA and fingerprints are clear but insufficient.
“They need to fit the narrative, but I want you to listen to all the evidence and then you will see,” the defense attorney said.
The trial is expected to continue into next week.
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