By that point, Fields lost the re-election for prosecutor without the police department's endorsement. His DNA ended up matching the Wofford case, the rape case and the 1995 murder of Ruth Henderson in Crawford County. Police had caught Vines in the act, attempting to rape a 16-year-old girl. "Then about 4-6 months later, I got a phone call one night from the police saying, 'Gee we want to apologize you were right Danny Bennett didn't do it,'" Fields said. Fields told police they had the wrong person behind bars. The DNA test came back inconclusive for Wofford, and the other victim wasn't a match at all. "Everything rocked along until I got a call from Crawford County that another woman middle aged, had been murdered," Fields said. "The new prosecutor elected not to go for the death penalty."įields said police initially arrested Danny Bennett, who confessed to the crimes. Footage from a 5NEWS story in March of 2001 shows Vines being sentenced to life in prison. "The one woman who survived, she had been knocked unconscious immediately, so it was felt like the perpetrator thought that she was dead and Juanita Wofford was just brutally stabbed to death," former prosecutor Ron Fields said.įields served as prosecutor of Sebastian and Crawford counties from 1978-1995.
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