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PRICE — The case of a rape and killing of a woman in her Price home 46 years ago may be one step closer to being closed.
In court Monday, an attorney for Thomas Edward Egley, 76, said his client would like to see the case resolved soon and is willing to enter a plea deal. He was charged in August with the legal equivalent of first-degree felony murder, as well as rape, a first-degree felony, in the 1970 death of 23-year-old Loretta Jones.
Egley's attorney, David Allred, said that resolution could be presented as early as the next court date on Oct. 17. Allred said his client hasn't discussed the allegations against him in detail, but that "this has been on his mind for a lot of years."
Allred said Egley is willing to waive a preliminary hearing, where prosecutors would have to present evidence to support the charges against him, but the state is pushing to go forward with the hearing in order to preserve testimony in the case.
Jones was found by her 4-year-old daughter on July 30, 1970, in the living room of their home in Price, 468 E. 400 South. Egley was arrested and charged with the woman's death, but a judge tossed the case after a preliminary hearing later that year, saying there wasn't enough evidence to send him to trial.
Now an adult, Heidi Jones-Asay said Monday she has waited decades for justice in her mother's killing, and she is prepared to wait longer. Though she has seen Egley in the courtroom before, Jones-Asay said the moment he walks in for each hearing can still be frightening.
"Hearing his name before he comes through that door, for me, that little 4-year-old, I almost feel like there's going to be a big monster that comes barreling through that door. But then the door opens and it's this 76-year-old guy that looks pretty haggard and hasn't aged well," Asay-Jones said.
She said she sees no evidence of remorse in Egley, whom she hopes to address at sentencing if he is convicted.
"The evilness is in his eyes, it has always been in his eyes," Jones-Asay said.
Egley moved to Rocky Ford, Colorado, in 1971 and remained there until his arrest this summer. Allred notes that Egley has had a virtually spotless criminal record for the past 46 years.
According to charging documents, Egley confessed the killing to a neighbor who then convinced him to "come clean" to police. After telling police that he had slit Jones' throat, Egley confessed further to his neighbor, saying he had raped and killed the woman after she rejected his advances, charges state.
Egley is being held in Carbon County Jail on $1 million bail.
