A man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a man in eastern Pennsylvania almost five decades ago.
Sixty-eight-year-old Richard Keiper of Boyd, Texas was convicted Monday in Monroe County Court in the October 1968 death of 40-year-old Alfred Barnes of Bethlehem.
Barnes was an assistant to the vice president at Bethlehem Steel. Hunters found his bullet-riddled body in a field near Effort. His car was later recovered in Warren County, New Jersey.
Prosecutors said Keiper was arrested in September 2013 after confessing his involvement in Barnes' death but arguing that he acted in self-defense after Barnes pulled a gun on him.
Defense attorneys cited the lack of DNA evidence or witnesses and the loss of other evidence such as the bullets and shell casings.
