34-year-old Jacksonville cold case goes to trial

August of 1984, 10-year-old Tammy Welch was raped and murdered at her apartment complex off 103rd Street.

Investigators say her neighbor, James Leon Jackson, killed her, then put her body outside his window.

Wednesday, Jennifer Roache, Tammy's older sister explained the two sisters were playing with a beach ball. The two got in a fight, and Roache went inside but Tammy never came back in.

Roache then went looking for her sister less than an hour later, she found her body lying on the ground in the courtyard of the apartment complex.

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Roache, in distress, pulled out clumps of her own hair.

Tammy's shorts were bloodied, she had been raped and strangled.

Jackson is a five-time convicted felon. He denied any involvement in her case saying he had been sleeping at the time.

Jackson was interviewed by police twice in 1984.

Then in 2002, investigators revisited the case, Jackson voluntarily submitted a DNA sample.

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Ten years later, DNA  was sent to a lab, then in 2013, a partial DNA profile had been identified and matched Jackson.

Prosecutors say Jackson admitted to the crimes to cellmates while incarcerated, and even got a tattoo on his lower back that says “Tammy Welch 1984”.

Jackson’s attorney says the DNA testing is incomplete, and the tattoo was put there without his knowledge while cellmates were touching up other tattoos.

Attorneys for Jackson say he will testify in his trial.

Cox Media Group