Codington County Courthouse
WATERTOWN, S.D. (KFGO/KWAT) – A man who spent more than three years in jail for the murder of a woman in northeastern South Dakota has been released.
A jury found Jeremiah Peacemaker not guilty in the murder of 28-year-old Kendra Owen.
Owen’s decapitated and decomposing body was found in her Watertown apartment.
Attorney General Marty Jackley prosecuted the case.
“Certainly, we always reflect back. The opportunity to talk to the jurors helps us all be better lawyers to determine, ‘is there additional evidence that they wanted that we would have had,’” Jackley said. “We weren’t going to come up with a murder weapon. We weren’t going to come up with a confession or eye witness.The lay witnesses testified to what they could remember.”
Defense attorney Kate Benson called it a case, “with a lot of holes, no weapon, and no motive.”
The prosecution’s strongest piece of evidence was Peacemaker’s right thumbprint on a tube of toothpaste in Owen’s bathroom.
Following the verdict, members of Owen’s family began screaming expletives and had to be removed from the courtroom.
Peacemaker spent nearly 1,279 days in the Codington County jail. He was set free shortly after the verdict was announced.
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