Fresno man charged with murder in 36-year-old cold case enters plea. The victim was 22
Carl Eugene Sears pleaded not guilty Monday to a 36-year-old cold-case murder that could send the 71-year-old convicted sex offender to prison for life or to death.
Sears is accused of sexually assaulting and stabbing to death 22-year-old Jacqueline Denise Henry on Feb. 24, 1987, in the parking lot of Pearly Grove Baptist Church on East Church Avenue in southwest Fresno.
About a dozen of Henry’s supporters attended the arraignment in Judge Charles Lee’s courtroom. A few them gave the defendant cold stares as court bailiffs took him out of the courtroom. Several of Henry’s relatives were at the press conference last month when Fresno police announced his arrest, and they expressed relief that Henry’s murder had been solved.
Police said Sears moved her body from the church parking lot to a field across the street where it was found several days later. Detectives investigated, but the case remained unsolved for 36 years, until detective Bartlett Ledbetter submitted DNA evidence in the case to the state Department of Justice.
The test results showed Sears was a match to the sample.
Sears, who was on probation for an assault with a deadly weapon conviction in 2020, was arrested and charged with Henry’s murder and her assault. Because of his conviction, police had access to his DNA profile.
Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama held a press conference on July 25 to announce there had been an arrest in the cold-case murder.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Kaitlin Drake said after the hearing that the district attorney’s office has not made a decision on whether to pursue the death penalty.
Sears, who is represented by Christopher Irwin with the office of the Fresno County Public Defender, remains in the Fresno County Jail with bail set at $1.1 million.
This story was originally published August 7, 2023 at 4:17 PM.
