TAWAS CITY, Mich. (AP) - There will be no second murder trial for a man who served three years of a 25-year prison sentence for the death of a woman who disappeared in a small Michigan county in 1980.
The decision Friday by Iosco County Prosecutor Nichol Palumbo came two weeks after the state appeals court threw out Jimmie Nelson’s second-degree murder conviction at her request.
Palumbo has new evidence that casts doubt on Nelson’s guilt. Cherita Thomas was last seen struggling with a steaming radiator in Iosco County, about 200 miles north of Detroit.
The evidence hasn’t been publicly disclosed but it points to a different perpetrator.
The 61-year-old Nelson has been out of prison and free on bond since November. He was charged in 2004 but didn’t go to trial until 2010.
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