FORT WORTH -- Ryland Shane Absalon was convicted of capital murder Friday in the brutal 1984 stabbing death of 18-year-old Ginger Hayden, who was found dead in her bedroom by her mother.
Absalon, 45, was automatically sentenced to life in prison. He will be eligible for parole after 20 years under the capital murder laws in effect in 1984.He was not eligible for the death penalty because he was a juvenile at the time of the slaying.Jurors in state District Judge Everett Young's court deliberated about three hours.Earlier Friday, prosecutors Lisa Callaghan, Jim Hudson and Anna Summersett urged jurors to convict Absalon of capital murder, saying her broke into Hayden's apartment to kill her after she rejected his advances.DNA evidence unearthed by the Fort Worth police department's cold case unit linked Absalon to the crime scene. But it was Absalon's graphic, detailed confessions during treatment sessions for drug and alcohol abuse two years after the crime that had jurors listening most intently.Former participants in the program stepped forward to testify about the confessions after seeing news reports of Absalon's arrest in 2010."We've brought you evidence beyond any doubt," Callaghan told jurors during closing arguments. "Do not buy the idea that a 17-year-old cannot be experienced in evil."Defense attorney Gary Udashen argued that it was not surprising to find Absalon's DNA in the apartment, since he had been there many times. He said the confessions were coerced by the domineering Straight Inc. program that pressured participants to admit problems in their lives even if they weren't true.He pointed to DNA from an unknown male found on blood-soaked socks and in semen found on a quilt on Hayden's bed to suggest that the young woman was the victim of a serial killer who was believed to have been targeting the area in 1984."The person who killed Ginger Hayden is still out there, and the police need to find that person," he said. "That person is not Shane Absalon."Dianna Hunt, 817-390-7084Twitter: @DiannaHunt
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