A 69-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Thursday, for murdering a man nearly 50 years ago in the oldest case to be successfully prosecuted in Pennsylvania's history.
Richard Keiper, 69, of Boyd, Texas, was sentenced in the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, following a first-degree murder conviction in July.
Authorities say Keiper never denied shooting Alfred Barnes, 40, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, an assistant to a vice president of Bethlehem Steel, on October, 18, 1968 and was an early suspect in the case.
Richard Keiper, 69 (left, earlier in the trial), was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Thursday for the October 18, 1968 murder of Alfred Barnes, a 40-year-old man who offered him a ride into Allentown, Pennsylvania
They met when Barnes offered Keiper, then 22, a ride and took him to a bar in Allentown.
At his trial this summer, Keiper said he shot Barnes in self-defense near Effort, Pennsylvania, but the jury did not believe him.
Monroe County Assistant District Attorney Michael Mancuso argued that the motive for the crime was stealing the victim’s new Ford Thunderbird, but also suggested it could have been a gay pick-up gone wrong.
Pennsylvania State Police said they had no DNA evidence and no weapon, but did have a witness who said that in 1971, Keiper had offered for sale for $10 a pistol he claimed he used to shoot a Bethlehem Steel employee.
Barnes' body was found in this field in Effort, Pennsylvania was three gunshot wounds to his head
Prosecutors suggest that Keiper's motive for the murder may have been to steal Barnes' brand-new Ford Thunderbird. Above, a stock image of a 1968 Ford Thunderbird
After the murder, Keiper joined a traveling carnival and evaded police for several decades. Investigators tracked him down in Texas in 2013
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ShareThe witness, Quaquo Kelly, reported the encounter to state police, but by that time, Keiper had joined a traveling carnival and vanished.
Keiper was arrested decades later after Pennsylvania investigators, urged by Barnes's family not to give up on the case, re-interviewed Kelly in 2013 and found the key witness stuck to his story.
Police tracked down Keiper to Boyd, Texas, a tiny town about 30 miles northwest of Fort Worth, found him married and working at a sewage treatment plant and took him into custody.
Mancuso, the prosecutor, said he believes the Barnes murder is the oldest cold case in Pennsylvania to be successfully prosecuted and likely one of the top three in the nation .
'To find people who, A, are still alive, B, are able to remember and articulate what had happened, that's no easy task,' he said of the conviction in July.
Michael Mancuso, the prosecutor, said he believes the Barnes murder is the oldest cold case in Pennsylvania to be successfully prosecuted and likely one of the top three in the nation
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