Investigators say Kopp was seen in
slain abortion doctor's neighborhood
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Witnesses are able to place James Kopp in the Amherst neighborhood where the fatal shooting of abortion doctor Barnett Slepian took place, investigators said Monday.
While testifying in U.S. District Court, Amherst Police Department detective Raymond Nitche said he spoke to a man who claimed he briefly spoke to Kopp as he was jogging through the neighborhood. Other residents called in descriptions to police that matched Kopp, Nitche said.
Kopp, an anti-abortion extremist serving 25 years to life in state prison, was convicted of second-degree murder last year in Slepian's death. He is charged in U.S. Federal Court with violating the freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance Act.
While awaiting trial in the murder case, Kopp admitted carrying out the October 1998 sniper attack but said he meant only to wound Slepian, and "the bullet took a crazy ricochet."
Handcuffed and clad in an orange jumpsuit, Kopp made no comment during his court appearance Monday.
Meanwhile, his attorney John Humann argued that one crime log showed a a change in a witness's testimony from being "almost" sure that Kopp was in Slepian's neighborhood, to being "totally sure."
Humann also wants Kopp's confession thrown out because of a conflict of interest on the part of Kopp's former attorney Bruce Barket.
Kopp, 50, could be sentenced to life without parole if convicted of the federal charge. He would be 73 years old before becoming eligible for parole on the murder conviction.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/state/ny-bc-ny--
abortiondoctor1206dec06,0,1588070.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork
Posted by Editor at December 7, 2004 08:18 PM
