Saturday, September 26, 2009

Elmarr found guilty of murder

By Pierrette J. Shields
© 2009 Longmont Times-Call

BOULDER — After deliberating since Friday, a Boulder County jury on Tuesday afternoon found Kevin Elmarr guilty in the 1987 first-degree murder of his ex-wife, Carol Murphy.

When Boulder District Judge James C. Klein read the verdict, Kevin Elmarr’s wife began to cry while he remained stoic. He faces 40 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole.

Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 5.

The verdict concluded a trial that included nearly two weeks of testimony and arguments.

Hikers found Murphy’s nude body facedown near a trail in Left Hand Canyon on May 23, 1987. She had been strangled and her throat cut.

Elmarr was a suspect at the time of her death, but he was not arrested until January 2007 when a re-examination of evidence revealed his DNA in samples taken from her body.

Prosecutors argued that a tumultuous divorce and ongoing legal entanglements over the couple’s two children motivated him to kill Murphy.
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