Prison ordered in 1997 killing in Kansas City, Kan.
A Kansas City, Kan., man was sentenced Friday to life in prison for a homicide that went unsolved for 17 years.
Jason L. Rucker, 35, was found guilty last year in Wyandotte County District Court of first-degree murder in the 1997 killing of Vicky Ernst.
A co-defendant, Torry M. Johnson, 35, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced last month to life in prison.
They will have to serve 15 years before being considered for parole — the law in place at the time of the killing.
Rucker and Johnson were teenagers when Ernst, 33, was killed inside her home in the 900 block of Shawnee Drive. Her killers beat her and slashed her throat.
The case went unsolved until last year, when Kansas City, Kan., police developed new leads after a review of the original case file by detectives and Wyandotte County prosecutors.
When he was charged, Johnson already was serving a life prison sentence in Missouri for the 2005 killing of 46-year-old Eric Holden in Kansas City.
Tony Rizzo: 816-234-4435, @trizzkc
This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Prison ordered in 1997 killing in Kansas City, Kan.."