New charge for NY man cleared of 1972 slaying

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A 78-year-old man recently cleared of killing a blind upstate New York woman in 1972 has pleaded not guilty to a federal charge of failing to register as a sex offender.

Willie James Kimble was acquitted in March of bludgeoning to death Annie Mae Cray at her Rochester home. It was one of the nation’s oldest cold-case murders to come to trial.

Kimble remained locked up on a federal criminal complaint and was arraigned today on a charge that carries a maximum 10-year sentence. He’s already spent two decades in prison for rape and attempted rape.

In 2009, police obtained a DNA match from a semen-stained blanket kept in storage for 38 years. Kimble skipped town while the murder was re-examined and was tracked down in Sarasota, Fla., last year.