GETTYSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Trial is scheduled to open Monday for a man charged in the killings of a mother and her teenage daughter in central Pennsylvania almost four decades ago.
Fifty-eight-year-old Abraham Cruz Jr. was charged in 1985 with first- and second-degree murder, arson and burglary in the August 1980 slayings.
Adams County prosecutors say 41-year-old Nancy Patterson and her 17-year-old daughter, Deborah, were shot to death as they tried to escape the Freedom Township home, which had been set afire. A son of the adult victim was charged in the case but acquitted in 1981.
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Prosecutors initially said they intended to seek the death penalty but later withdrew that motion. Cruz’s uncle, Erasmo, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in February 2014 and was sentenced to 16 to 40 years.
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