TULSA The big break in a 1983 cold case came from testing a plastic cup found under a table in Room 26 at the Sandman Motel, a location known to police for illicit activities like prostitution.
In the room, Anthony T. Baltes had been bound, beaten and strangled during a robbery on Sept. 18, 1983. He was 39.
From DNA evidence on the cup, police identified a suspect Willie C. Moore of Wyoming.
Moore was indicted in September 2019 and extradited to Oklahoma. Last February, he was ordered to face trial for first-degree murder.
After that, things slowed down, in part because of the pandemic and in part for authorities to do more investigating. A jury trial scheduled for November was put off to March.
And,