Solving murders is very hard. But solving a murder that is old enough to be considered a “cold case” is even harder. So when it does happen, officials are usually overjoyed to bring long-denied justice to victims and families who have waited, sometimes decades, for answers.
But in the case of 36-year-old Jason Ryan of Davison, who is accused of raping and murdering a woman in 1996, that joy has been somewhat tempered by the fact that jurors were apparently unable to reach a unanimous decision, causing the judge to call a mistrial.
According to the Kalkaska County prosecutor, Ryan is alleged to have raped, and then murdered, 68-year-old Geraldine Montgomery. He is therefore facing charges of first-degree murder and first-degree criminal sexual conduct. However, this is not the first complication the state has encountered in the course of solving this crime.
In 1996, Montgomery was raped and then forced into the trunk of her car where she was asphyxiated with exhaust fumes. Enter: Jamie Peterson, who confessed fully to the crime, including in his confession details that could only have been known to the killer or someone present.
Peterson could not have been the rapist
But years later, the University of Michigan law school’s Innocence Clinic has tested the DNA evidence found on Montgomery’s clothing at the scene, only to discover that Peterson could not have been the rapist. Afterall, it was someone else’s semen found on the victim.
But whose?
Enter: Jason Ryan, whose DNA ties him conclusively to the scene of the crime. But as it turns out, that’s not enough for a jury to convict him. The county prosecutor, however, says that he doesn’t understand what the hold up is, after all, DNA evidence is rather irrefutable, isn’t it?
But irrefutable or not, after two days of deliberations, the jurors were at an impasse, and thus: the trial was a lost cause. But the prosecution is not giving up, and a new trial has been scheduled for January.
It remains to be seen whether or not round two proves positive for the prosecutors, or for Ryan.