DNA ARREST IN ’68 SLAY

Jerry Lee Bellamy, a 53 year old convict just days away from release, is now charged with a sex murder committed 36 years ago, after DNA evidence linked him to the crime. He faces first-degree murder charges in the death of 13 year old Jane Durrua, who police say was raped and bludgeoned on an isolated pathway near her home in Middletown, New Jersey, on November 4, 1968. Bellamy is being charged as a juvenile because he was 17 at the time of the girl's death. Authorities hope, however, to try him as an adult. Court records show he has been convicted twice of sex crimes, although one conviction was overturned by the state Supreme Court. In 1995, he received a five-year prison sentence for kidnapping and raping a 15 year old girl in Little Egg Harbor Township. Four years later, he was charged with raping an 18 year old woman in an Atlantic City motel room. Records show he pleaded guilty to criminal sexual contact and was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The state Attorney General's Office later filed a motion to have him involuntarily committed under New Jersey's Violent Sexual Predator Act. The state Supreme Court in December ordered his guilty plea vacated after Bellamy argued he had not been told he would be subject to the civil commitment if he pleaded guilty.

(New Jersey)