Florida man arrested in 32-year-old Colorado murder

DNA connects Florida man to 32-year-old Colorado cold case

GREELEY, Colo. -- Marcello Malddonado-Perez, 51, appeared in Weld County court Friday morning using a hearing aid to hear the charges of first degree murder and second degree kidnapping against him. He is being held in the Weld County Jail without bond.

Maldonado-Perez was arrested at his home in Port Charlotte, Florida Dec. 1, for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Mary Pierce in Greeley back in 1977. He was booked into the Weld County Jail on Thursday.

Pierce was a 22-year-old recent graduate of the University of Northern Colorado working at a 7-Eleven on 9th Street in Greeley when police say she was abducted Aug. 25, 1977. A customer called police when he found the store empty at around 3 a.m.

Her body was found two days later in a cornfield west of Greeley. She'd been stabbed 17 times and sexually assaulted.

DNA from a smock found at the crime scene led investigators to the piece crap Maldonado-Perez. He had submitted a DNA sample before his release from a Texas prison on another crime.

Investigators found the DNA match in April and have spent all the time since then making absolutely sure they had the perpetrator of the crime.

Maldonado-Perez was arrested by Weld County sheriff's deputies and federal officers Tuesday after DNA tests connected him to Pierce's murder. His fingerprint also was on a pop can in the store after Pierce was abducted.

Attorneys will spend the next month determining whether the death penalty would apply in this case, given that he is subject to the laws that existed in 1977, a time when the legality of the death penalty was being questioned in Colorado.

The Weld County District Attorney's office has 60 days until after Maldonado-Perez's arraignment Jan. 22 to decide whether to seek the death penalty.