Texas jurors have convicted a man in the brutal 1984 stabbing death of his teenage friend, who prosecutors say had rejected his romantic advances.
Ryland Shane Absalon was found guilty Friday of capital murder. The 45-year-old was automatically sentenced to life in prison because prosecutors didn't seek the death penalty.
Prosecutors say he stabbed Ginger Hayden more than 50 times in her bed in Fort Worth, then confessed two years later during a drug-treatment program. But he wasn't charged until two decades later, after DNA evidence was tested.
Defense attorneys say he was pressured into a false confession and believed everything said during the drug treatment program was confidential.
Absalon was arrested in 2010 at his home in Arizona, where he lived with wife and young child.
