A number of retired police officials testified Feb. 24 about a 1971 murder case in which a gay man was stabbed to death by a man he picked up at Horton Plaza 38 years ago. After re-examining fingerprints and other evidence collected at that time, police arrested Gerald Dean Metcalf, 61, in 2008, in Texas, and charged him with killing Gerald Jackson, 27, on Dec. 29, 1971.

Jackson’s nude body had been found in his apartment in the 1500 block of Hornblend Street in Pacific Beach, where he had been stabbed 61 times.

In the re-examination of evidence with modern technology not available at the time of the crime, Metcalf’s DNA was found on cigarette butts and bloody fingerprints retrieved from Jackson’s apartment in 1971. San Diego Superior Court Judge Frank Brown consequently ordered Metcalf to stand trial for murder. If Metcalf is convicted, he faces life in prison, the punishment in 1971 for murder.

A friend of Jackson’s, Ronald Coberly, testified that he went to Jackson’s apartment on Jan. 2, 1972, to find out why Jackson had not reported to work. Jackson was a letter carrier by day, but he also worked as a bouncer at night at the Barbary Coast, a gay bar that is no longer in business.

Coberly, then 27, said he and a friend, Roy Logan, who is now deceased, took off a window screen and reached through the unlocked window to unlock the front door. Coberly said he smelled a terrible odor and heard Jackson’s alarm clock ringing loudly.

“What I saw – I couldn’t believe it (until) it hit me what happened.”

Coberly said he saw a bloody handprint near the bedroom’s light switch. There were clothes on the floor, half eaten food in the living room and a pillow and blanket on the couch. Coberly said Logan called police even before they found Jackson’s body on his bedroom floor.

Coberly said Jackson kept his apartment “spotless,” and it was never as messy as it was that day. He said he noticed Jackson’s stereo was missing, along with scotch bottles.

On cross-examination, Coberly said he used to live with Jackson, who dated “someone different all the time.”

Ronald Thill, a retired police officer who is now an investigator with the District Attorney’s Office, testified the medical examiner determined that a laceration across Jackson’s neck was carved “left to right from behind.” Thill said the coroner determined that some of the wounds were struck while the body was stationary, possibly on the floor.

Thill testified Jackson turned his body when he was stabbed in the back. He said the wounds to his back and shoulder were inflicted first, but Jackson turned and tried to fight the attacker off.

Jackson’s Ford Torino was also stolen, but it was found less than a week later in Mexicali, Mexico. John Hignight, a retired police officer from Calexico, testified he helped San Diego Police retrieve the car and the missing stereo, which Hignight found in a pawn shop.

Hignight told the judge he found Jackson’s name on a pawn shop ticket and it listed the missing AM-FM receiver as the item pawned by the killer, who used Jackson’s identification. Hignight said he went to the pawn shop and used plastic bags to pick up the stereo, as the department did not use gloves in those days.

The stereo was a major piece of evidence, as it contained a bloody palm print that belonged to Metcalf.

Arthur Beaudry, who retired in 1990 from San Diego Police after a 32-year career, testified he went to Calexico to get the victim’s car and stereo. He identified the old cardboard box which was brought into court. Beaudry said the box was found in the trash outside Jackson’s apartment.

Beaudry testified about the fingerprints taken from the car by the department’s criminalist, Parker Bell, who died 10 years ago. Bell’s widow, Eugenia Bell, who also was a criminalist, identified her husband’s initials on all the evidence tags, and described his education and background.

The victim’s sister, Linda Keim, also testified, identifing the old cardboard box that housed the stereo. The police department gave her the stereo after the case went unsolved for so many years, and it no longer exists.

Keim testified she never knew her brother was gay. She said she knew he was a bouncer at a gay bar, but “It was not a topic of conversation” in their family.

Jackson was a Vietnam veteran and served in the Army, she said.

A member of the police department’s cold-case homicide team put the never-identified fingerprints into the FBI’s database last August and got a match. Metcalf had been arrested in Texas and his prints were on file.

San Diego Police detective John Tefft and Texas officials knocked on Metcalf’s door in Chandler, Texas, and obtained fingerprints, palm prints, and two mouth swabs for DNA from him. They matched the killer, but before he was arrested, he confessed to Tefft that he killed Jackson, but only in self-defense.

Metcalf claimed Jackson picked him up that night 38 years ago, and he went home with him. He admitted that he after he removed his clothing, Jackson brought a knife to bed and tried to force him to perform oral sex. Metcalf claimed he killed Jackson in self-defense.

Deputy District Attorney Jill Schall did not put on any of those statements by Metcalf, saying they were only “self serving” and not believable. She said that despite the era the crime occurred in, police tried to solve the case back then. Many of Jackson’s friends were fingerprinted, but none of the prints matched the killer’s prints.

Metcalf’s attorney, Gary Gibson, said because of Metcalf’s statements, he will present a self-defense scenario to a jury. Gibson told reporters the issue is not whether Metcalf was present with Jackson that night, but what type of offense occurred.

“The issue isn’t who killed Mr. Jackson. It is why Mr. Jackson died,” Gibson said.

Gibson asked Coberly and the victim’s sister if Jackson was violent, but both said he was not.

Gibson said Metcalf is not gay and has been married for 30 years.

Metcalf will get a trial date set on March 10. He has plead not guilty and remains in the Vista Detention Facility on $1-million bail.

Gibson said he “was amazed at the quality of the investigation.” Police eventually “got the right guy,” he said. “It is the oldest case I’ve ever handled. It just takes you back to a different time, different place,” said Gibson.

In December 1971, Pete Wilson was sworn in as the city’s new mayor, John Lennon and David Cassidy were on magazine covers and Gloria Steinem founded Ms. Magazine.

Metcalf will be arraigned in Superior Court March 10 and receive a trial date.