GUILTY CO - Helene Pruszynski, 21, Castle Rock, 16 Jan 1980 *Arrest*

[Niner]

Sentencing has been rescheduled.

Date Len Name Hearing Type Case # Location Division
7/1/20
9:00 AM 1Hr CLANTON, JAMES Sentencing Hearing D182019CR1316 Douglas County DIV 1

link: Seventh Judicial District » Docket Search

 

[Niner]

After 40 years of waiting for justice - Helene will "hopefully" get it today!





Wednesday, July 1st:
*Sentencing Hearing (@ 9am MT) –CO - Helene Pruszynski (21) (found Jan. 6, 1980 in a field near Daniels Park Rd, Castle Rock) - *James Curtis Clanton (aka Curtis Allen White & James Alan White) (22 @ time of crime/63) arrested & charged (12/9/19) with 1st degree murder & kidnapping.
GEDMatch DNA Parabon Nanolabs match
Clanton was convicted in 1975 of raping a woman at knife point in her Arkansas home. He forced the woman to drive him to a bus stop in Little Rock & then let her go; she went to police & he was arrested at the bus stop within the hour, according to the affidavit. Although Clanton was sentenced to 30 years in prison, with 10 years suspended, he was released on parole after just four years.
12/16/19 Update: He appeared in court Monday (12/16/19) for his first appearance & is scheduled to return on Feb. 21 for preliminary hearing.
2/21/20 Update: Clanton plead guilty Friday to a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Helene. Three other counts of murder and a kidnapping charge were dismissed in the plea. Sentencing is scheduled on 4/10/20. 4/3/20: Sentencing has been rescheduled for 7/1 due to COVID-19.

 

[Niner]

Helene Pruszynski murder: Killer sentenced to life in 1980 cold case

July 1, 2020
Forty years after 21-year-old Helene Pruszynski was kidnapped, raped and stabbed on her way home from an Englewood bus stop, the man who killed her has been sentenced to life in prison.

Douglas County Judge Theresa Slade sentenced James Curtis Clanton, 63, during an emotional, nearly three-hour hearing Wednesday in which more than a dozen people testified about the lasting impact of the killing over the past four decades.
[.....]
Slade imposed a life sentence with the possibility of parole, as was agreed to when Clanton pleaded guilty. During sentencing, she urged Clanton to try to build on his expressed remorse to live a better life.

 

[dotr]

Very lengthy list at link, of all the people who worked on this case, kudos to all, well done!
Sept 4 2020
Helene Pruszynski cold case: Investigators who solved the murder | 9news.com
''DOUGLAS COUNTY, Colo. — The work necessary to solve the Jan. 16, 1980 murder of Helene Pruszynski took nearly 40 years and the work of more than 100 individuals from more than two-dozen agencies.''

''RAW: James Clanton's chilling body camera confession of 1980 murder of Helene Pruszynski''
•Sep 4, 2020 (click the watch on youtube )

 

[margarita25]

40 Years in the Dark: How genetic genealogy solved the Helene Pruszynski murder case
Authorities found Helene's killer using science that couldn't have been imagined even a few years ago.

Kevin Vaughan

(In depth article)

 

[CastlesBurning]

‘Dateline’ probes cold-case murder that led to Florida man’s arrest 40 years later

 

[dotr]

‘Dateline’ probes cold-case murder that led to Florida man’s arrest 40 years later

Looking forward to watching this episode, thanks for the reminder!

''Dateline Episode Trailer: A Promise to Helene | Dateline NBC
Josh Mankiewicz reports Friday, October 16 at 10/9c on NBC.''

 

[dotr]

April 19, 2021
Family Waited Decades for Justice After Aspiring Journalist's 1980 Murder: 'Never Got Any Easier'
''Nearly 40 years after Helene Pruszynski was brutally murdered, her friends and family finally found justice with the 2019 arrest of James Clanton, a truck driver who killed the aspiring journalist in 1980.

But while Clanton's arrest provided a measure of closure, it didn't alleviate the pain of losing Pruszynski. A 21-year-old junior at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, Pruszynski was staying with relatives in Denver and interning at a local radio station when she was raped and murdered by Clanton.

"It never got any easier," her sister Janet Johnson told the judge at Clanton's sentencing in 2020. "It was as if someone had reached in and torn our hearts out."

Credit: AP/Shutterstock
''Shortly after his arrest, Clanton, who had lived in Colorado at the time of Helene's murder under the name Curtis White, pleaded guilty to Pruszynski's murder. In July, he was sentenced to life in prison.''
rbbm.
April 19 2021
Helene Pruszynski Murder: Who Killed Her? Where is James Clanton Now?

''Curtis had a criminal record. He had been sent to prison before for raping a woman at knifepoint in Arkansas in 1975. After getting out in 1979 on parole, he moved to Colorado to the home of a former counselor who wanted to help him. So, the investigators now knew he was present in the area at the time of Helene’s killing. They still needed to match his DNA to the sample, though. Digging into his past, they realized that he had been living under the name of James Curtis Clanton since 1982.

The authorities tracked him down to Lake Butler, Florida where he was working as a truck driver.''
rbbm.