Texas prosecutor cites weak case for 2009 plea deal for future suspected serial killer
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A Texas prosecutor is defending her office's 2009 plea deal in a sexual assault case involving a man now suspected of a series of killings in Indiana.
Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said in a statement Monday that Darren Vann received a plea deal of five years in prison because the case was weak. She says a delayed outcry resulted in lost DNA evidence and the victim was inconsistent.
Lehmberg said Vann's criminal history then "revealed no prior history of sexual assault and no prior convictions."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lehmberg spokesman Rudy Magallanes said a 2007 Indiana didn't appear in Vann's criminal history. In that case, Vann served a year in prison for placing a woman in a chokehold, dousing her with gasoline and threatening to set her on fire.