Death penalty off the table in Bristow killing

SANDPOINT — The state is declining to seek the death penalty against William Rey Acosta for the 1987 strangulation death of Tammy Rae Bristow, Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall advised a 1st District judge on Monday.

William Rey Acosta was scheduled to be arraigned on Monday, although Deputy Public Defender Janet Whitney said her client would not be entering a plea during the hearing, court records indicate.

Acosta remains held at the Bonner County Jail with bail set at $1 million. An entry-of-plea hearing is set for Aug. 12.

A Bonner County grand jury indicted on a charge of first-degree murder last month, 32 years after Bristow was found slain in her Atone Street apartment. A ligature of tent guy line was found around her neck, according to Bonner County Daily Bee news archives.

Investigators initially suspected a 31-year-old transient of the Jan. 8, 1987 killing after he was found with a Bible that Bristow was known to keep in her purse. Fiber evidence did not link the man to the crime, officials said.

The case subsequently went cold, largely due to the limitations of DNA testing of that era. However, Marshall and Sandpoint Police Chief Corey Coon resolved to reopen the investigation in 2016.

DNA evidence recovered from beneath Bristow’s fingernails was entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System and produced a match with Acosta’s DNA. It’s not clear what caused Acosta’s DNA to be entered into CODIS, although Marshall has suspected it for felony assaults he was convicted of in Arizona in the early 2000s.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.