Posted on 10/02/2002 7:35:49 AM PDT by Cooter
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (October 2, 2002 7:05 a.m. EDT) - An inmate and former mental patient accused of butchering a 10-year-old boy and feeding him to neighbors likely won't face murder and kidnapping charges because the alleged victim's mother believes her son is alive.
Zachary Ramsay's mother, Rachel Howard, said Tuesday she was prepared to testify she did not believe Nathaniel Bar-Jonah had killed her son in 1996, prompting prosecutors to drop their case.
"I did not want Bar-Jonah to be convicted of a crime that I did not believe he did," Howard said.
In an interview at her attorney's office, Howard said her belief is based on several things, including a videotape she says shows her son at age 12. She said police did not believe the boy in the video was her son.
Bar-Jonah, 45, already serving a 130-year prison sentence in Montana for kidnapping and sexual assault in a separate case, was accused of abducting Zachary while he walked to school.
The boy's body was never found, and authorities have said evidence suggests Bar-Jonah killed the boy and disposed of his body in meals served to unsuspecting neighbors.
Searches of Bar-Jonah's house nearly three years ago turned up lists of children's names, including Zachary, and encrypted letters in which Bar-Jonah wrote about such dishes as "little boy stew," "little boy pot pies" and "lunch is served on the patio with roasted child."
Prosecutor Brant Light said he would ask that the charges be thrown out ahead of a trial scheduled to begin next week. A judge has to approve the request.
"In light of Rachel Howard's testimony, I don't think there's any way we could win this," Light said.
Defense attorney Don Vernay said he was pleased with the prosecutor's decision, but added that he was confident Bar-Jonah would have been acquitted at trial.
Bar-Jonah was convicted earlier this year of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old Great Falls boy, and hanging the boy's 8-year-old cousin from a kitchen ceiling. Those assaults occurred in 1998 and 1999. Bar-Jonah has appealed the verdict.
Bar-Jonah spent 11 years in a Massachusetts mental hospital after one attack in which authorities said he tried to kill two boys. Before that, he had forced an 8-year-old boy into his car and choked him with his belt. Shortly after his release, he assaulted another boy.
Under a 1991 plea agreement with Massachusetts prosecutors, Bar-Jonah was allowed to move to Montana with his mother. Montana authorities were outraged to learn of the deal after Bar-Jonah's arrest.
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