LOS ANGELES : Inmate Pleads Not Guilty in Slaying of U.S. Agent
A man who already is serving time for a triple murder pleaded not guilty Thursday to the 12-year-old shotgun slaying of Julie Cross, the only woman Secret Service agent to die in the line of duty.
Andre Stephen Alexander, 40, in a brief hearing in Los Angeles Municipal Court, also indicated he would represent himself in a case that could land him on death row if he is convicted. Commissioner John Ladner appointed Madelynn Kopple, a Santa Monica-based lawyer, to advise Alexander in his defense.
Kopple said she and Alexander would likely challenge the constitutionality of charging him with a crime that is so old.
Cross was killed on the night of June 4, 1980, during an attempted robbery as she and her partner staked out a suspected counterfeiting operation in the Westchester District of Los Angeles.
Alexander was convicted two years ago in the slayings of a printer, his girlfriend and another man.
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