A southeast Georgia man was arrested and charged within the 1985 killing of a pair at a Black church after the unique suspect — who spent 20 years behind bars — was exonerated on DNA proof, authorities mentioned.
Erik Kristensen Sparre, 61, was jailed on costs of felony homicide and aggravated assault within the killings of Harold and Thelma Swain, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation mentioned in a news release Monday. Sparre was arrested practically 4 a long time after the couple was fatally shot inside Rising Daughter Baptist Church in coastal Camden County.
Sparre grew to become the main target of a renewed investigation into the Swains’ deaths after authorities concluded that they had initially prosecuted the flawed man.
Dennis Perry was sentenced to life in jail when a jury convicted him in 2003 of murdering the Swains. He spent 20 years in jail earlier than a Superior Court choose ordered a retrial in 2020. The choose dismissed all costs towards Perry in 2021 after prosecutors requested to drop the case.
Georgia Innocence Project
Investigators and the courts took a recent take a look at the case after attorneys for the Georgia Innocence Project examined DNA from hairs discovered within the hinge of a pair of eyeglasses left subsequent to the victims’ our bodies. They mentioned the DNA matched Sparre, who had as soon as been thought-about a suspect, and never Perry.
Meanwhile, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Sparre’s alibi that he was working at a grocery story when the killings occurred, couldn’t be true. The newspaper additionally raised doubts about Perry’s conviction, noting that jurors have been by no means instructed a key witness was paid a $12,000 reward earlier than testifying.
Sparre’s ex-wife, Emily Head, instructed police in 1986 that he had confessed to the murders in a cellphone message that her household recorded, the newspaper beforehand reported.
The GBI mentioned Sparre was arrested in Waynesville, the place he lives, about 90 miles southwest of Savannah, Georgia, and booked on the Camden County jail. According to jail records, he was charged with two counts of homicide and two counts of aggravated assault.
Sparre has beforehand denied killing the Swains. A cellphone quantity listed for Sparre wasn’t working Tuesday and it was not instantly identified if he had an lawyer to characterize him.
Since his launch from jail, the unique suspect, Perry, has been spending time with this spouse and reconnecting with household and associates, in accordance with the Georgia Innocence Project.
“It took a very long time, however I by no means gave up,” Perry instructed the group after his exoneration in 2021. “This indictment has been hanging over my head for over 20 years, and it is such a reduction to lastly not have to fret about being accused of this terrible factor.”
