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 stated.
Erik Kristensen Sparre, 61, was jailed on prices of felony homicide and aggravated assault within the killings of Harold and Thelma Swain, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation stated in a information launch Monday. Sparre was arrested practically 4 many years after the couple was fatally shot inside Rising Daughter Baptist Church in coastal Camden County.
Sparre turned the main target of a renewed investigation into the Swains’ deaths after authorities concluded that they had initially prosecuted the unsuitable man.
Dennis Perry was sentenced to life in jail when a jury convicted him in 2003 of murdering the Swains. He spent twenty years in jail earlier than a Superior Court docket choose ordered a retrial in 2020. The choose dismissed all prices in opposition to Perry in 2021 after prosecutors requested to drop the case.
Georgia Innocence Mission
Investigators and the courts took a contemporary have a look at the case after attorneys for the Georgia Innocence Mission examined DNA from hairs discovered within the hinge of a pair of eyeglasses left subsequent to the victims’ our bodies. They stated the DNA matched Sparre, who had as soon as been thought-about a suspect, and never Perry.
In the meantime, The Atlanta Journal-Structure 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 advised a key witness was paid a $12,000 reward earlier than testifying.
Sparre’s ex-wife, Emily Head, advised police in 1986 that he had confessed to the murders in a telephone message that her household recorded, the newspaper beforehand reported.
The GBI stated Sparre was arrested in Waynesville, the place he lives, about 90 miles southwest of Savannah, Georgia, and booked on the Camden County jail. In line with jail data, he was charged with two counts of homicide and two counts of aggravated assault.
Sparre has beforehand denied killing the Swains. A telephone 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 mates, in response to the Georgia Innocence Mission.
“It took a very long time, however I by no means gave up,” Perry advised the group after his exoneration in 2021. “This indictment has been hanging over my head for over 20 years, and it is such a aid to lastly not have to fret about being accused of this terrible factor.”
