The State - News from Dec. 12, 1986

The defense rested in the retrial of Booker T. Hillery, accused of stabbing a 15-year-old Hanford girl to death with her own scissors in 1962. The prosecution offered no rebuttal testimony, and closing arguments are scheduled Monday. The last witness, James Jenkins, told jurors that he saw the defendant, Hillery, in the hotel where both lived about the time Marlene Miller was murdered on March, 21, 1962. But Jenkins, conceding that he was uncertain about the date, said, “After this length of time, I get fouled up a bit.” The defense attacked prosecution claims that new, sophisticated techniques found paint particles from Hillery’s car in Marlene’s home and shoe. Defense attorney Clifford Tedmon introduced grand jury testimony from 1962 in which a criminologist said he found paint particles in the car but none in the Miller home. Hillery, a black, was granted a new trial by the U.S. Supreme Court because blacks were excluded from the Kings County Grand Jury that indicted him.