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POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — A man accused of stabbing a 25-year-old woman to death in 2004 pleaded not guilty to a murder charge after prosecutors said a fingerprint and DNA evidence linked him to the crime.
Brad Compher, 40, was arraigned Monday in 6th District Court on the first-degree murder charge in the death of Nori Jones.
Judge Rick Carnaroli set a trial date for April 2016 to accommodate the amount and nature of the evidence.
"This case has a lot of forensic evidence in it and because of that there's a need for experts to testify about that forensic evidence," Zack Parris, Bannock County's chief deputy prosecutor, told KIFI-TV in Idaho Falls (http://bit.ly/1EnX2wb ).
Compher was arrested in September after police said DNA evidence and a fingerprint linked him to the killing of Jones. Her body was discovered Sept. 28, 2004, in her Pocatello home by co-workers when she didn't report for work.
During a preliminary hearing, an expert testified that DNA samples from a sexual assault kit matched Compher.
Jones had moved to Pocatello in 1999 and worked for the Job Service, which is now called the Idaho Department of Labor. At the time of her death she was engaged to be married.
Jones had been renting the home and lived alone.
Police said Compher became a person of interest in 2010 after the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification system produced a positive hit. That system is shared by police departments nationwide and the FBI and CIA.
Police said the hit came from a fingerprint found at the crime scene.
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Information from: KIFI-TV, http://www.localnews8.com/
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