SACRAMENTO, CA - It took 32 years but Sacramento County prosecutors now have a guilty plea in the fatal stabbing of a man found at Miller Park in Sacramento.
Robert Blockton pleaded guilty to manslaughter and use of a knife in the 1980 killing of Charles Redmond. Blockton was arrested in Redmond's death in 1981 but released due to a lack of evidence, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.
The homicide remained unsolved until 2007 when cold case detectives reopened it. D.A. Ssokeswoman Shelly Orio said detectives sent a semen sample found on the victim to the D.A. crime lab for DNA analysis. Blockton refused to provide a DNA sample. However, when he was arrested in 2010 for illegal possession of ammunition because of a 1992 felony conviction, his DNA was obtained and showed a match to the semen on Redmond's body, Orio said.
Blockton reached a plea deal with prosecutors and when he is sentenced Sept. 25, he will receive a term of five years and eight months on the manslaughter, knife and ammunitions charges.
News10/KXTV