A Texas man has admitted to the 1995 murder of a 37-year-old nurse and mother of four in Redding.
On Monday, James Earl Watkins pleaded guilty to the cold-case murder of Christine Munro. Watkins pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and admitted to the allegations of kidnapping, robbery and lying in wait, the Shasta County District Attorney's Office said in a statement.
Sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 25.
"Christine Munro has three surviving children," the District Attorney's Office said. "They were all consulted and are pleased with the resolution of the case."
Munro was attacked while running on the south side of the Sacramento River Trail on June 24, 1995.
In 1997, a convicted rapist falsely confessed to the crime, but there was insufficient evidence to charge him, and the case went cold, the Redding Police Department said in a November, 2020 press conference.
In late 2019, the case was reopened and using modern technology, DNA evidence was further analyzed. Using fingernail scrapings taken from Munro, the Department of Justice found a possible match through the department's Combined DNA Index System.
The DNA matched with Watkins, who was serving a 14-year sentence for robbery in a Texas state prison, police said.
In Aug. 2020, detectives flew to Texas to interview Watkins and secured a search warrant for his DNA. It matched evidence gathered from the crime. In November, they transferred Watkins to Redding. Watkins was then booked into Shasta County Jail.
"We will not stop pursuing justice for our victims, even 25 years later," investigators said at the November press conference.
