The State - News from Sept. 8, 1985

The first-degree murder conviction of Michael Stanley Nottingham, 26, of Thousand Oaks for the 1982 strangulation of a 24-year-old woman was reversed on grounds that the jury was not correctly instructed and that evidence of previous sex offenses was improperly admitted. A three-justice panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Ventura ruled that jurors should have been told that it had to be proven that Nottingham had a specific intent to kill Margie Jane Davidson, 24, also of Thousand Oaks. Her body was found in a remote area near Thousand Oaks and police said evidence indicated that Nottingham killed her after she resisted his attempts to rape her. He was an outpatient of Camarillo State Hospital at the time.