State prosecutors want to depose a Michigan man whose brain cancer may claim his life before he can testify in a 2000 murder case of an East Ridge woman.
But defense attorneys for the accused are concerned about the memory of a man undergoing chemotherapy and questioned how crucial the witness’s testimony would be to the cold case.
Jason Kirk Sanford is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the slaying of his ex-girlfriend, Sarah Perry, who was found strangled to death in a garbage can in June 2000.
Sanford fled to Michigan days after and had conversations with Michel Penetrics in 2000 about the crime, prosecutors say. Sanford was indicted in August 2016, transported back to Chattanooga and is being held in the downtown jail.
Though prosecutors want to call Penetrics to the witness stand if there ends up being a trial, they’re worried he won’t be available because of his cancer.