LUMBERTON — The trial of a St. Pauls man on charges that he raped and murdered a 79-year-old woman more than 30 years ago in California has been rescheduled again.

The Sept. 9 trial date for Kevin Ford, of 3884 W. N.C. 20, has been continued until Nov. 4 at the request of Ford’s public defender, Courtney Cutter, according to Tanya Sierra, a San Diego County District Attorney’s Office media specialist. Cutter could not be reached for comment on the delay.

Ford is accused in the sexual assault and murder of Grace Hayden in 1987. His trial originally was scheduled to start on April 30. It was delayed until Sept. 9 after the defense attorney filed for a continuance.

Ford entered a plea of not guilty to the charges on July 31, 2018, and was ordered held without bail, according to Sierra. On Nov. 2, 2018, Superior Court Judge Leo Valentine Jr. ordered Ford to stand trial in San Diego.

Deputy District Attorney Valerie Summers is to prosecute the case.

The investigation into Hayden’s death had gone cold because of a lack of evidence, but became hot again early in 2018 thanks to the efforts of Tony Johnson, an investigator with the San Diego District Attorney’s Office. Johnson was looking at cold cases when he ran a fingerprint found in Hayden’s home through the national law enforcement data base, which did not exist at the time of the murder. The print led to Ford.

On May 24, 2018, Johnson contacted Erich Hackney, a Robeson County District Attorney’s Office investigator, and told Hackney that Ford was a potential match. Ford was stopped for probable cause and a DNA sample was taken. Ford’s DNA sample matched DNA evidence collected in 1987 at the crime scene, according to investigators.

A first-degree murder arrest warrant was issued in California on July 3, 2018, and Ford was extradited to San Diego.

Ford
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Staff report