Prosecutors in the case against
Jeremiah Morfin, who is accused of murdering his nine-year-old cousin, are working to tack on new charges.
The amendment included criminal sexual penetration of a minor, attempted criminal sexual penetration of a minor, and criminal sexual contact. They say in January of 2019, Jeremiah Morfin, who was 15 at the time, beat his cousin to death and sexually assaulted her but previously he was never charged with rape.
The prosecution spent all day trying to convince a judge there’s enough probable cause for these charges but the defense argued the evidence doesn’t back it up. Jose Herrera, Jeremiah’s mother’s ex-boyfriend, was one of five people who testified on Monday. He testified that the nine-year-old girl had come over for a sleepover and disappeared in the middle of the night.
Police say when they got there, Morfin led them to her body in a nearby arroyo. She was found unclothed from the waist down and wrapped in a blanket - his DNA was found on the girl’s body