DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — The trial for a decades-old cold case is now underway in DeKalb County and the man accused of murder testified in his own defense on Monday.
Channel 2′s Tom Regan was in the courtroom as prosecutors rested their case against Kenneth Perry. A short time later, Perry took the stand as defense attorneys laid out their case.
Perry’s attorneys previously told the judge that his client would not testify.
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Perry is accused of murdering a brother and sister in 1990. Prosecutors told the court that Perry stabbed John Sumpter to death inside Sumpter’s Stone Mountain apartment. They said he then raped and stabbed John Sumpter’s sister, Pamela Sumpter, at the apartment.
But Perry testified that he didn’t commit those crimes 35 years ago.
He claimed that the Sumpters and another man drugged him the night he was at the apartment and sexually assaulted him.
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Perry said the other man had a knife and cut him with it when he tried to leave. He said he finally escaped the apartment and drove off in terror.
“All three of these people were alive when I left the apartment that night,” Perry testified.
He said he never returned to the apartment or called the police about what happened.
Earlier, prosecutors presented evidence they say links Perry to Pamela Sumpter’s rape.
Closing arguments are expected to be presented on Tuesday.
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