CHARLOTTE, N.C., Feb. 10 (UPI) -- A deathbed confession allegedly implicating an elderly North Carolina man in the 1966 slaying of an 11-year-old girl is admissible, a judge has ruled.
A trial for Thurman "Soupy" Price, 80, arrested and charged in 2007 with first-degree murder in the killing of Brenda Sue Brown of Shelby, N.C., can proceed after the Tuesday ruling by Mecklenburg County Superior Court Judge Timothy Kincaid, The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer reported.
The newspaper said Kincaid ruled that a dying confession by Earl Parker to his granddaughter, Lori Lail, alleging he and Price had attacked and planned to rape Brenda would be allowed into evidence, thus enabling the case against Price to proceed.
"I knew this day would come," Patricia Buff, sister of the slain girl, told the Observer. "It's the most wonderful feeling in the world."
Lail reportedly told police Earl Parker told her as he was dying in 2002 that Price hit the girl with a rock and killed her after she struggled.
Price's lawyer, David Teddy, told the newspaper Lail's allegations were inconsistent and less than trustworthy.
No trial date has been set.
