District Attorney Sam Sutter announced that John Loflin has pleaded guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to a life state prison sentence in connection to the 2002 slaying of 43-year-old Marlene Rose in New Bedford.
Mr. Loflin, 45, of Tennessee was sentenced today in Fall River Superior Court by Judge Robert Kane to a lifetime prison sentence with the possibility of parole after 15 years.
Mr. Loflin was indicted for the murder of Ms. Rose in November 2010 after District Attorney Sutter’s Cold Case Unit was alerted to new DNA evidence in the case. Mr. Loflin had provided a sample of his DNA to officials in Tennessee after serving a jail sentence connected to a 2008 drug case in that state. The DNA Mr. Loflin provided turned out to be a match to DNA evidence gathered from underneath the victim’s fingernails and bite marks on her body.
Ms. Rose, of New Bedford, was found beaten and strangled to death on the railroad tracks near 1800 Purchase St. on July 7, 2002. Her slaying went unsolved for more than eight years.
At the time of the murder, Mr. Loflin was living in New Bedford.
The case was prosecuted by Co-First Assistant District Attorney William McCauley, who heads up District Attorney Sutter’s Cold Case Unit. Mr. Loflin was scheduled to go to trial on this case next week, but instead decided to plead guilty to second degree murder today.
Since taking office in 2007, District Attorney Sutter’s office has brought charges in 11 cold cases homicides from previous administration, some of which date as far back as the mid-1980s.
“Last night the prosecution trial team and I met with certain members of Marlene Rose’s family. The certainty of a conviction for this murder and a life sentence, even with the possibility of parole, moved them to support the resolution of this case on a plea to second degree murder. The prosecution team, including William McCauley, MaryClare Flynn, Cheryl Robinson and I were gratified that with this disposition we were able to deliver some justice to the family of Ms. Rose for this brutal slaying,” District Attorney Sutter said. “To date, we have now re-opened more than 100 cold cases going back 40 years and so far obtained convictions in six cold case murders. I am optimistic that we will be securing convictions on others in the future. I would like to thank everyone within our office and the police departments who work on these cases for this singular achievement.”