TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – A man suspected of a 1996 Tallahassee murder was found guilty on Thursday, according to court documents.
A jury found Alan Lefferts,75, guilty of the murder of James Branner, who was found dead at the Prince Murat Motel in July 1996. He was sentenced to life in prison.
That guilty verdict came after just two hours of deliberation.
Lefferts was arrested 26 years after Branner’s murder in 2022 after Tallahassee Police used new DNA technology to analyze evidence.
A jury found Alan Lefferts guilty of the murder of James Branner, who was found dead at the Prince Murat Motel in July 1996(Leon County Jail)
TPD said Lefferts’s fingerprints were compared to latent prints at the crime scene and matched those taken from the motel room telephone.
Court documents show Branner was found strangled in the bathtub of the motel room, with a washcloth stuffed in his mouth.
Tallahassee police learned the motel room had been registered under the name “Jim and Al Branner.” Witnesses reported a middle-aged white man, who court papers say was last seen outside the motel room the day of the murder asking for a light for his cigarette. Detectives tried to track down “Al,” but were unable to identify him.
In 2019, genetic genealogy testing was performed on the DNA profile found at the scene, which led investigators to Lefferts, according to court documents.
Lefferts’s DNA was found on bedding, bloody towels and the washcloth found in the victim’s mouth, court documents show.
When he was arrested in Jacksonville, Florida, records show Lefferts denied ever having been to Tallahassee or knowing Branner.
Testimony lasted three days and Lefferts did not testify in his own defense.
Arrest papers show Lefferts was convicted in 1979 for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in New York. He was released from prison 10 years later. Tallahassee police say he moved to Florida shortly after his release.
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