Charles Gary Sullivan, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2023 for the 1979 murder of Julia Woodward, was denied parole.
Sullivan, who is 78, will not be eligible for parole again until August 2027.
"I applaud the parole board’s decision to deny Sullivan parole,” said Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford. “Sullivan's crime robbed a young woman of her life, her family of a dear loved one and her community of its sense of peace. He deserves the full punishment he received.”
Prosecutors say Sullivan was arrested in 2019 after his DNA was linked to Woodward’s murder. In June 2023, he was sentenced on a no contest plea of second-degree murder to a definite term of 15 years with parole eligibility after five years. As Sullivan was given credit for the four years he served awaiting sentencing, he was eligible for parole this year.
The case was originally investigated by the Washoe County Sheriff's Office and submitted to the Office of the Attorney General for consideration in 2018.
The case went to a grand jury in 2019, and the grand jury returned an indictment charging Sullivan with one count of open murder.
Sullivan was arraigned in November 2019.
(Nevada Attorney General's Office contributed to this report.)
JUNE 27, 2023:
A man who pleaded no contest to a 1979 Reno killing was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Tuesday.
72-year-old Charles Gary Sullivan will be eligible for parole after five years.
On May 4th, 2023, Sullivan changed his plea to no contest.
Sullivan has already served 1,400 in jail and will count towards his sentencing.
Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford and Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam held a press conference directly following the sentencing.
"Our job is justice. Today we're here to announce that justice has been served on behalf of Julia Woodward who nearly 45 years ago in 1979 was murdered and her body was mangled. Her killer fled the state, he likely though he evaded justice, but I'm here to tell you that he did not," said Attorney General Aaron Ford.
In the sentencing, the defense argued that the case was not as clear cut as it seems, and that the Sullivan's DNA found on Woodwards jeans did indicate that he was with her, but it did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Sullivan murdered Woodward.
However, prosecutors brought up a 2007 case in which Sullivan was found to have sexually assaulted another young women.
The AG's Office, Washoe County Sheriff's Office, and FBI have been working on the reopened cold case investigation for nine years.
"This case also wouldn't have gotten sentencing without the assistance of the Washoe County Forensics Science Division they worked tirelessly with detective and evidence to investigate the case," said Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam.
Woodward's mother Cecily O'Conner gave a statement directly after the sentencing.
"I don't talk about closure because for me there is no closure I will always miss my daughter forever and think about her but anyway I am relieved to have this resolution. I wish the sentencing would have been harsher but this is good, it's a resolution, and anyway I'm grateful to everybody who brought this about," said O'Conner.
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UPDATE, June 6, 2023
On May 4th, 2023, Charles Gary Sullivan changed his plea to no contest.
According to the court documents, Sullivan could face between five and fifteen years in the Nevada Department of Corrections.
Sullivan's sentencing is scheduled for June 27th, 2023.
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UPDATE, February 26, 2020
A trial date is now set for the man accused of killing a young woman in Reno 40 years ago.
Charles Gary Sullivan is scheduled to go on trial on January 25, 2021.
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UPDATE, January 2020:
In a court appearance on Monday, lawyers for Charles Sullivan filed to have the charges against him dropped.
He is accused of killing a young woman in Reno 40 years ago.
The Reno District Court did not make a ruling on Monday.
His lawyers say there was not enough evidence to charge him with the murder of Julia Woodward, who was found dead in Hungry Valley in 1979.
UPDATE, December 2019:
Lawyers for a man accused of killing a young woman in Reno 40 years ago want the charges against him dropped.
His lawyers filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus on Monday, saying there was not enough evidence to charge 73-year-old Charles Sullivan with the murder of Julia Woodward, who was found dead in Hungry Valley in 1979.
They say due to the lack of evidence, the charges against Sullivan should be dropped.
A hearing for that has not yet been set.
Original Story, November 2019:
Prosecutors are tying a 73-year-old Arizona man to two unsolved Reno-area killings in a bid to keep him in jail following his indictment in the bludgeoning death of a California woman more than 40 years ago.
Charles Gary Sullivan’s defense attorney, David Houston, didn’t argue for his client’s release Tuesday after Sullivan pleaded not guilty to murder in the 1979 bludgeoning death of 20-year-old Julia Woodward.
Sullivan remains jailed without bail pending another hearing in January.
In Nov. 7 court filing, state Attorney General Aaron Ford and prosecutors identified Sullivan a suspect in the killings of two other women in the Reno area: a 23-year-old in 1979 and a 17-year-old in 1978.
Sullivan isn’t charged in those cases.
He was arrested in August in Flagstaff, Arizona.
