By DIANE CARROLL
The Kansas City Star

OLATHE, Kan. -- Former Canton, Mo., resident John Henry Horton has been sentenced to life in prison for a second time for the 1974 murder of a Prairie Village girl.

And again, just as he had declared at his first sentencing, Horton, 61, maintained he was innocent.

"I'm not guilty of this," he told District Judge James Franklin Davis on Wednesday, as he stood between his attorneys, Michael McCulloch and Carol Cline.

A Johnson County jury found otherwise on March 5, when Horton was convicted of first-degree felony murder in the death of Lizabeth Wilson, 13. The jurors agreed that Horton lured Liz into Shawnee Mission East High School to molest her and killed her with an overdose of chloroform.

McCulloch said he would immediately file a notice of appeal. It will go directly to the Kansas Supreme Court, which last year overturned Horton's 2004 conviction.

Horton lived quietly with his wife in Canton for several years until being arrested in 2003.

District Attorney Phil Kline said that Horton received the stiffest sentence available under the law at the time the offense was committed. But it's not stiff enough, he said.

That law makes Horton eligible for parole in 15 years. Because Horton has served five years, Kline said, he will be eligible for parole in 10 years. However, Kline said, he does not think the parole board will let him out of prison.

"He is a danger. He is evil. And he needs to be locked up," Kline said during a news conference in his office.

The sentencing was brief.

Linda Myers, Liz's aunt, told Horton that Liz had a large family who would fight to keep him in prison. She said relatives would be there at "absolutely every hearing" the parole board held.

Kline read a letter from Liz's brother, Alex Wilson, who lives in Arizona. Wilson asked for the harshest sentence available.

"Liz Wilson was the epitome of goodness and innocence," Wilson wrote. "... It is simply impossible to convey the impact that this has had and continues to have on our lives."

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