JEFFERSONVILLE, Ind. (AP) _ A convicted sex offender accused of sexually assaulting and killing a 17-year-old southern Indiana girl says he didn’t plan the crime but “lost control” after the girl resisted his advances.
Forty-nine-year-old Richard Hooten of Clarksville told the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., Thursday that he didn’t realize the girl was 17 when he asked her if she wanted to hang out.
Hooten is charged with murder, rape, criminal deviate conduct, being a habitual offender and abuse of a corpse.
The teen was found dead by strangulation early Saturday, the day before her 18th birthday. Her funeral was Wednesday.
Hooten is being held in the Clark County Jail.
Clark County Prosecutor Steve Stewart plans to decide in the next two weeks whether to pursue the death penalty against Hooten.
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