New suspect in 35-year-old murder makes appearance in El Dorado County court
Michael Green, the new suspect in the 1985 Jane Hylton murder case, made his first appearance in El Dorado County juvenile court Wednesday. Prosecutors are aiming to try the defendant, who was 17 years old at the time of Hylton’s death, in adult criminal court.
Green is scheduled to appear again in court March 20 in El Dorado County Superior Court, following the county probation department’s completion of a “transfer hearing report.”
The report is the first move in transferring a defendant from juvenile to adult court.
As a teen at the time of the murder, the now-51-year-old’s trial is especially unusual, according to El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson.
“Procedurally, the court has to go through some steps on the juvenile side of it,” Pierson said.
Green was arrested Tuesday, Feb. 11. Authorities booked him into El Dorado County Jail Friday, Feb. 14. El Dorado County public defender Tim Pappas is representing Green in the case.
Hylton was found dead July 7, 1985 at an El Dorado Hills home. Green is said to be one of three young men who were with the victim’s young-teenage daughter at a nearby park on the night of the murder.
In 2005, 20 years after the murder, authorities arrested and tried Ricky Davis for the brutal killing. He wound up serving 15 years for a crime that officials are now saying he didn’t commit.
On Thursday, Feb. 13, authorities cleared Davis through genetic genealogy. A DNA test exonerated the prisoner and led investigators to Green.
The district attorney’s office teamed up with the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office and its crime lab to free Davis. In April 2018 investigators used the same technology to identify the Golden State Killer, who murdered at least 13 across California over several decades.
Thomas Frey contributed to this report.
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