Death penalty waived in 40-year-old California killing

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — Prosecutors have waived the death penalty for a California man charged with killing a woman nearly 40 years ago.

The Bakersfield Californian says a judge was told Friday that the Kern County district attorney’s office no longer is seeking death for Prentice Foreman.

A judge last week found that Foreman could be tried for murder but not special circumstances that the killing occurred during commission of rape and burglary.

Foreman, a 60-year-old long-haul trucker from Bakersfield, is charged with killing 18-year-old Dawn Koons, who was found dead from asphyxiation in a bathtub in 1979. She was naked except for a pillowcase over her head and her wrists were tried.

Foreman had lived in the woman’s apartment complex.

New DNA testing led to his arrest in December.