Former Texas death row inmate accused of Colorado rape

A former Texas death row inmate freed nearly 30 years ago is accused of kidnapping and raping a woman in Colorado.

Claude Lee Wilkerson was arrested Sunday and is being held in the Mesa County Jail.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports he is expected to be charged in the case on Monday.

Mesa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Henry Stoffel confirmed that Wilkerson spent four years on death row before being freed from Texas state prison in 1983 after a judge threw out his confession because he didn’t waive his rights. He was one of four men arrested in 1978 in connection to the deaths of three people during a jewelry store robbery.

Wilkerson is being represented by a public defender. Steve Colvin, the head of the Grand Junction office, declined to comment.