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MARSHALL COUNTY, Ala. (WHNT) — A man convicted of murdering a woman in 1987 and has tried to appeal that decision multiple times was recently denied his chance at parole.

Jeffery Todd Newsome was charged in the strangling death of 21-year-old Kimberly Tabatha Vaughn on a hot July night after the two were allegedly seen hanging out at PJ’s, a nightclub in Guntersville.

According to the Associated Press, it’s suggested that he was also involved in the deaths of two other women – Fran Cox from Albertville and Christianne Lutz from Germany.

Documents from his 1990 appeal state that Vaughn arrived at the club around 9:30 p.m. on July 10. 1987, and was seen dancing with friends. Newsome, who was said to have known Vaughn for several years, arrived sometime around midnight.

The last time Vaughn was seen alive was after she left PJ’s alone around 1 a.m., records say, and, shortly after, was reportedly seen on the street near the club with a man and a woman as all three were arguing.

Her unlocked vehicle was found where she had parked it the night before.

Newsome wasn’t questioned about Vaughn’s disappearance until July 16, where records say he “became upset and belligerent.” He did, however, provide investigators with the following statement:

“I was with Alan Weaver and Chris Scott, alias, Gumbie, that Friday night. I went to PJ’s around eleven around 10:30 or eleven. We left around 12:00 o’clock, I think. I really don’t remember. Then I went to Sneads Crossroads to see Ricky Garrison. He wasn’t home. I saw his sister. She’s about fourteen or fifteen. Then I went to Gadsden to the Strip. I just cruised around. I don’t remember what time I got home. Almost daylight. I talked to Kim when I was at PJ’s. I really don’t remember what about. Kim’s not my type so I wasn’t trying to hit on her. I parked my car across the street in front of PJ’s. “I’m six foot and weigh a hundred and fifty-five pounds. I was wearing blue jeans and a white pull-over shirt.”

Court of Criminal Appeals, Jeffrey Todd NEWSOME v. STATE.

A search warrant for Newsome’s car was obtained on July 29, to which not only did he consent, but is said to have gone with officers to the police station for the search. On the way, records say he asked if Vaughn’s body had been found yet.

Officers noticed the interior roof lining of the vehicle was “sagging.” When they asked him about it, Newsome told them it was from when he cleaned the interior with mineral spirits, records show.

Five days later, investigators learned that another man had helped Newsome pull his vehicle out from where it was stuck, in an isolated area near Guntersville. When the man showed police where he pulled the vehicle out, documents say they noticed a considerable amount of damage to a pine tree Newsome’s car allegedly hit.

Later that day, records state that Vaughn’s body was found within 50 yards of where Newsom’s vehicle was stuck.

A forensic pathologist would later testify that his examination showed Vaughn had been strangled due to her hyoid bone missing.

A frontal dental bridge was also missing, where a dentist testified that “in his opinion, because the teeth of the bridge had been embedded in bone, its removal was consistent with ‘blunt force trauma’ and that the possibility that an animal removed the bridge was ‘extremely remote.'” 

Her purse was found “a considerable distance” from her body.

Documents show that Vaughn’s scalp and a portion of her skeleton were said to have been found 120 feet from the pine tree allegedly struck by Newsome’s vehicle, which was believed to be the original location where Vaughn had been killed, documents state.

Investigators also reportedly found the interior light from a vehicle at the scene, as well as a clothes hanger that had been undone and straightened out, “hanging from the pine tree.”

An ex-girlfriend of Newsome’s later testified that they had a conversation before Vaughn’s death, where he admitted that “[he] and [Vaughn] got to talking and he told her about Germany,” adding that he “told her everything.”

To explain what the conversation about Germany referred to, a criminal investigator with the United States Army, James O’Brien, was brought in.

He testified that there was an “ongoing investigation” into Newsome concerning the death of 17-year-old German Christianne Lutz in February 1986, while he was stationed there. Her body was found five weeks after her disappearance.

Investigators from Germany had additionally traveled to Marshall County to question people between May and June 1986.

In 1989, the Associated Press reported that boy scouts found skeletal remains in a wooded area of Buck Island near Guntersville on November 7, 1987. At the time, Bob Norwood with the Marshall County Special Crimes Unit said those remains were identified as 22-year-old Fran Cox.

Cox had last been seen in April 1987 when her mother dropped her off at a Guntersville nightclub, where she had reportedly been seen with Newsome.

He was convicted of Vaughn’s murder after a jury trial and sentenced to life in prison in 1989, but has spent much of his time behind bars appealing and petitioning his case.

Newsome’s 1990 appeal was denied, though as recently as 2005 has petitioned for Rule 32, which, according to the Alabama Rules of Criminal Procedure, provides a method for defendants to challenge their conviction in a trial court. It’s most commonly used when new evidence is discovered that might have changed the outcome of the case.

Newsome’s parole hearing was held on April 6 before the Alabama Board of Pardons & Paroles.