Court Upholds Conviction in 30-Year-Old Murder

Sultan Chezulu was convicted in 2010 of murdering 18-year-old Elsie "Yolanda" Hernandes

The highest court in Massachusetts has upheld the murder conviction of a man serving life in prison with no chance of parole for the 1984 killing of a teenager in Boston.

The Supreme Judicial Court on Friday rejected the appeal of 66-year-old Sultan Omar Chezulu, who changed his name from Robert Louis Scott in 1997. Chezulu argued that there wasn't sufficient evidence to convict him and that errors made during his trial require a new trial.

Chezulu was convicted in 2010 of murdering 18-year-old Elsie "Yolanda" Hernandes in Boston's Roxbury section. Prosecutors said Hernandes was walking to a friend's home when she was pulled into a vacant lot, beaten, raped and strangled.

Chezulu was arrested in Atlanta in 2008 on the basis of DNA evidence. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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