Rod Estes waited 23 years for his wife's killer to be brought to justice, and this was the week.He and the rest of Julie Estes' family traveled to Jacksonville from their Missouri homes for a trial that, if all went well, would end with a first-degree murder conviction.
But after nearly a quarter century, justice came more swiftly Monday than anyone expected when convicted sex offender James Kenneth Elmen Jr., 42, pleaded no contest.
"Now maybe we can go tell her. She can finally rest," Rod Estes said after court.
Elmen abducted Julie Estes, then 21, from the Southside convenience store where she worked in 1985. He raped and murdered her. Her body was found the next day, but the killing went unsolved until 2003 when it became the first murder arrest by the new cold case squad at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
Elmen had faced the death penalty if convicted but received a mandatory life prison sentence as part of his plea agreement. The deal allows him to appeal several issues related to the collection and testing of DNA evidence that was used to crack the case.
Julie Estes' father, John Stoverink, said the family agreed to the plea-agreement deal because it avoids the uncertainty of a trial.
Stoverink said he had given up on his daughter's murder being solved. He said since her family lived out-of-state, he assumed authorities had simply forgotten about the case.
What they didn't know then was that Elmen had been locked up virtually the whole time for the 1986 rape and kidnapping of another woman who was scheduled to testify against him this week.
In that case, Elmen was holding her at knifepoint as she drove down Southside Boulevard when she spotted off-duty motorcycle officer Bill Dearborn and slammed on the brakes in front of him. She was screaming and honking her horn, recalled Dearborn, now retired.
"He had a knife to her throat at the time, and I had my .38 to his head," Dearborn said. "If I hadn't been there, he would have killed her."
Rod Estes said Elmen might still be out there, preying on other victims, if not for that rape victim's courage.
Police suspected Elmen in the Estes murder because of the similarities between the crimes but, in the pre-DNA era, had no physical evidence linking him to the slaying, said Undersheriff Frank Mackesy. Tests conducted by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 1996 didn't detect Elmen's DNA.
Mackesy, who was one of the first officers on the scene when Estes' body was found, said he never forgot the case. When he became chief of detectives in 2000, he said he asked that more tests be run with newer, more sophisticated technology. Samples were sent to a military lab, which linked Elmen to the murder.
"This is why it's so important that when we collect evidence, we do it right. We're under the magnifying glass, even 23 years later," Mackesy said.
Although he had completed his rape sentence, Elmen was in the state's civil commitment center for sex offenders in Arcadia when police charged him in 2003 with Estes' murder. Even then, the case took five more years to get a trial date because of the complicated DNA evidence.
Elmen's court-appointed lawyers challenged the competence of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement tester and the role of a military lab in determining the results. Attorney Frank Tassone said under federal law military investigators aren't supposed to get involved in civilian cases unless the crime occurs on a base or the victim or perpetrator is in the military.
Circuit Judge Mallory Cooper denied the defense arguments before trial and granted a prosecution request to limit testimony about the Department of Law Enforcement examiner's competence. Cooper's rulings went a long way toward coaxing Elmen's plea, Tassone said.
"He felt that ... it kind of cut most of our case out from under us," Tassone said.
Police also suspected Elmen in two other homicides, including the 1985 slaying of his 10-year-old half sister, but no evidence exists linking him to those crimes, said Assistant State Attorney Julie Schlax. She said one of the victims was missing 45 days and was a skeleton when police found her, eliminating any hope for DNA evidence.
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1 comment:
I just wanted to point out that while this is a great article and very informative, the title makes one think that Rod is the murderer. Thanks for all you do.
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