GUILTY MD - Stacy Hoffmaster, 15, Frederick, 1 Oct 1996

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http://www.your4state.com/story/d/s...tective-new-tech/65844/RURKCHUXEEO5-zhMcIM50A

The murder of Stacy Hoffmaster, 15, is one of the biggest unsolved cases by the Frederick Police Department. But with a new detective on the case, officials are hopeful they can finally catch Stacy's killer or killers.

"Right now it's just going to be a matter of following up on the original investigation, to basically start over, start fresh," said Det. Kevin Forrest, the now lead investigator on the Hoffmaster murder case.

Stacy went missing in October of 1996 - one month shy of celebrating her sweet sixteen. Police reports indicate her body was found nearly three months later in a wooded area near E. South Street, just two days before Christmas.

http://articles.herald-mail.com/199...sed-body-frederick-city-police-police-station

The student's partially decomposed body was found by two men looking for cans the morning of Dec. 23 under a tarp in a wooded area behind the Southern States building.

The man who found the body said the young woman was nude and bound at the legs with rope. The area where the body was found is frequented by homeless people, police said.

Memorial page: https://www.facebook.com/InLovingMemoryOfStacyLynnHoffmaster
 
FREDERICK, Md. -- Frederick police are announcing an arrest in the 1996 slaying of a 15-year-old girl.

Frederick Police Department Lt. Clark Pennington said Monday that 52-year-old Lloyd Harris was arrested last week in Kansas City, Missouri, in the death of Stacy Lynn Hoffmaster.
1aharris.jpg
WUSA

(...)
Pennington says a Frederick County grand jury indicted Harris Jan. 22 on charges of first-degree murder, first-degree rape and third-degree sex offense.
(...)
Police believe Harris and Hoffmaster knew each other, the station reports. Harris reportedly lived in the woods near where the girl's body was found.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lloyd-h...tacy-lynn-hoffmasters-1996-cold-case-slaying/
 
Another article:

Missouri Man Arrested in 1996 Cold Case Murder of 15-Year-Old: 'She Was Robbed of a Future,' Says Friend
By Char Adams @CiCiAdams_
02/03/2016 AT 11:30 AM EST


Snipped:

One woman, who describes herself as Hoffmaster's childhood "best friend," writes in a message to PEOPLE that Hoffmaster's family is requesting privacy.

"We are pleased to see an arrest as it was a long wait. It's just the beginning; it won't be enough till [Harris] is sent to prison for the rest of his life," she wrote. "He has spent the last 20 years living, we have spent them just trying to live without her. She was a beautiful soul."

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http://www.people.com/article/lloyd-harris-alleged-murder-stacy-hoffmaster-arrest-missouri-maryland
 
Trial for man charged in 1996 murder of teen to stay in Frederick

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/cops_and_crime/trial-for-man-charged-in-murder-of-teen-to-stay/article_ce515b57-4031-506f-ab35-65191303a1d1.html

The trial of a man accused of raping and killing a Frederick teen two decades ago will stay in the county, despite his request to move it.

A Frederick County Circuit Court judge denied a motion on Monday that would have moved the trial of Lloyd Arbard Harris, 53, to another court in Maryland.

His attorneys, Matthew Frawley and Ashley Sener, filed a motion to move the trial because they believed they would not be able to find an unbiased jury locally due to media coverage of the case.

Harris is scheduled to face trial in March, court records show.
 
Judge denies request to dismiss murder case related to 1996 death of Frederick teen

http://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/judge-denies-request-to-dismiss-murder-case-related-to-death/article_e12a2ed5-c78b-515f-aa00-30ca36727864.html

The murder trial of a man accused of raping and killing a Frederick teen in 1996 will proceed after clearing several legal challenges in Frederick County Circuit Court.

Attorneys for Lloyd Arbard Harris, 53, on Friday unsuccessfully requested that Circuit Judge William R. Nicklas Jr. dismiss the case because prosecutors took so long to indict Harris.
 
Man charged in 1996 killing of Frederick teen unsuccessfully argues for jail release

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/courts/man-charged-in-killing-of-frederick-teen-unsuccessfully-argues-for/article_90048934-7e6e-5451-8f4e-9d4f791d6520.html

A judge has denied an attorney’s request to set bail for a man accused of killing and raping a Frederick teen in 1996.

Lloyd Arbard Harris has been jailed since his arrest in early 2016. His attorney argued Thursday that the delay should allow his client to get out until the trial begins.

Frederick County Circuit Court Judge William R. Nicklas Jr. disagreed.

Nicklas denied bail Thursday for Harris, 53, citing the “heinous” nature of the charges and Harris’ lack of roots in Frederick County.

Nicklas said he would ask the court’s staff to see if the trial date could be moved up.

His trial has been postponed twice and is currently scheduled to begin Oct. 23, according to online court records. In light of the delays, Frawley asked Nicklas to consider allowing his client to be released on bail to stay with his sister in Frederick.

Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen Swanson emphasized that the first delay in the case was at the request of the defense attorneys. Frawley was handling another murder case at the time. The second, she added, was due to coordinating the schedules of expert witnesses for a defense motion.
 
Forensic evidence allowed at trial in 1996 killing of Frederick teen

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/courts/judge-to-allow-forensic-evidence-in-rape-and-murder-trial/article_714db905-1ef4-5f37-a87f-fb034d28647c.html

Assistant Public Defender Matthew Frawley, Harris’ attorney, argued on June 27 to bar some testimony of Dr. Stephen Cina, a forensic consultant and former medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Hoffmaster’s body. Cina is expected to testify about test results that prosecutors will argue proves that Harris had sex with Hoffmaster around the time of her death.

Frederick County Circuit Judge William R. Nicklas denied the motion June 30.

The trial is scheduled to begin on October 25th.
 
Cold-case murder trial aims to piece together Frederick teen's final day

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/cold-case-murder-trial-aims-to-piece-together-frederick-teen/article_1e878452-fadd-50c8-8ed7-1dc229ff5af7.html

The last time Stacy Lynn Hoffmaster saw her best friend, she borrowed her watch. The last time she saw her mother, she was in trouble because she had skipped school. The last time Hoffmaster saw her boyfriend, they had lunch and then spoke with the man who is now accused of killing her.

Family and friends recalled the last time they saw 15-year-old Hoffmaster, as prosecutors in Frederick County Circuit Court on Tuesday elicited testimony to piece together a timeline leading up to Hoffmaster’s disappearance and death. They aim to show that Lloyd Arbard Harris, 54, raped and killed her in the woods near Interstate 70 and East South Street on Oct. 1, 1996.
 
DNA evidence in murder case corroborates man’s admission he had sex with Frederick teen found dead

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/courts/dna-evidence-in-murder-case-corroborates-man-s-admission-he/article_89e0fb69-232b-505b-9c4e-f4ede193d302.html

DNA tests ultimately excluded suspects except for Harris as the source of male DNA found on the girl’s body.

None of the scientists’ tests could prove that Harris raped or killed Hoffmaster, they said, but it did indicate the presence of his semen on her.

Harris, in his early 30s at the time, admitted he had sex with Hoffmaster the Saturday before she disappeared, according to a detective who interviewed him. But he has denied killing her.
 
French fries may provide clues to time of death of Frederick teenager

Friday’s testimony included evidence from forensic scientist Stephen Cina, who wrote the report from Hoffmaster’s autopsy.

Her stomach contained a white, starchy substance that could have been potatoes, Cina said, which is consistent with what Hoffmaster’s boyfriend told police she ate at lunch with him on Oct. 1, 1996 — french fries and chicken nuggets.

Harris’ attorneys have argued that Hoffmaster may not have been killed on Oct. 1. 1996, the day before she was reported missing. While Cina acknowledged that he could not determine a fixed time or date of death from the condition of Hoffmaster’s body, he said that Oct. 1, 1996, could not be ruled out as the day she died.

Forensic scientist challenges autopsy finding in teen's 1996 killing

Earlier in the trial, Stephen Cina, who wrote the report from Hoffmaster’s autopsy, testified that the presence of an enzyme found in semen on Hoffmaster’s body, acid phosphatase, led him to believe that she had intercourse no more than 48 hours before her death and likely within six hours.

Karl Reich, a forensic scientist hired by Harris’ legal team, testified Monday that no test of a cadaver can accurately determine the time lapse between intercourse and death.

Testing swabs for acid phosphatase screens for the presence of semen but cannot show when the substance was left, he said.

Frederick murder trial postponed after defendant attacked by another inmate

The trial of a man accused of raping and killing a Frederick teen in 1996 was put on hold after he was struck in the face by another inmate.

Lloyd Arbard Harris, 54, needed six stitches above his right eye after the attack, which occurred Monday in a holding cell at the Frederick County Courthouse after his trial had ended for the day.

Due to the injury, the trial was postponed Tuesday. It will continue Wednesday, when Judge William R. Nicklas Jr. will determine how to proceed.
 
Man convicted in 1996 rape and murder of Frederick girl

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/courts/man-convicted-in-rape-and-murder-of-frederick-girl/article_a71161c5-f52a-5d1c-844d-0e88e3f9cae8.html

After about three hours of deliberation Wednesday, a Frederick County jury convicted 54-year-old Lloyd Arbard Harris on charges related to raping and killing Stacy Lynn Hoffmaster in 1996.

The jury convicted him of murder, rape and third-degree sex offense in the 15-year-old’s killing.

Harris will face life in prison when he is sentenced. He is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 7, but his attorneys indicated they may seek a postponement at that time.
 
Defendant In Decades Old Murder Given Life In Prison

Sentencing was handed down Wednesday in Frederick County Circuit Court to a man convicted of the murder of a teenager more than 20 years. Lloyd Arbard Harris, 54, was given life in prison for 1st-degree murder for the slaying of 15-year-old Stacy Lynn Hoffmaster. He was also given a concurrent life sentence for 1st degree rape and 3rd-degree sex offense. Both of those two latter charges were combined.

State’s Attorney Charlie Smith says the prosecution wanted Harris to get life without the possibility of parole, which he would be eligible for in 15 years. “We wanted absolutely no possibility whatsoever for this guy to get out of jail. We didn’t get that. We respect the judge’s sentence. We just disagree with it,’ he said.

https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/crime_and_justice/courts/life-sentence-for-man-guilty-of-frederick-cold-case-killing/article_ea465fe0-e30b-5d99-ba77-cd1e1359d89d.html

Addressing the court, Deputy State’s Attorney Nanci Hamm referenced a pre-sentencing investigation report on Harris and described him as an evil man without a conscience.

“Mr. Harris really has nothing to show for his life,” Hamm said in court. “He took things when he wanted them, he destroyed things when he wanted to, and on October 1, 1996, he killed Stacy Lynn Hoffmaster.”

Chris Hoffmaster, Stacy’s brother, was given an opportunity to read a statement before the sentencing.

“It took 21 years to finally get justice. Today is a day for Stacy to have justice,” Hoffmaster said. “You’ve taken 21 years of memories away from us. ... You took her smile away forever.”
 

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