Oklahoma appeals court upholds cold case murder conviction

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – An Oklahoma appeals court has upheld the life prison sentence of a 64-year-old man convicted of killing an Oklahoma woman more than 40 years ago.

The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals handed down the decision Tuesday in the case of Thomas Craig Levering, who was found guilty of first-degree murder by an Oklahoma County jury in 2014 in the 1975 slaying of 38-year-old Jerry Ann Watson. Levering was already incarcerated on previous convictions, including rape.

Watson’s body was found in a wooded area on January 30th, 1975. A hunter discovered her body three weeks after she had been missing.

Her car was recovered from the parking lot of an Oklahoma City shopping mall. A print lifted from the car in 1975 was matched to Levering through a computerized database.