Court Documents Point To Juggalo As Possible Suspect In Teenager's Murder

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — As the trial for a man accused of killing a girl and leaving her in a baseball dugout at a Sacramento park begins, a new wrinkle in the case reveals there may be a new suspect in the murder.

The trial of Ryan Roberts officially began three years after investigators discovered 13-year-old Jessica Funk-Haslam's body stabbed, choked and beaten to death in a Rosemont community park. Investigators say DNA found on cigarette butts at the crime scene matched Roberts' from a previous arrest.

His mother Tammy Roberts broke her silence, two years after Ryan was arrested on suspicion of the teen's death.

"I've been waiting for two years to tell you what I've known all along; my son, Ryan Roberts has been wrongly accused of a horrible crime: the murder of a young girl," she said in a prepared statement on Monday.

A rare motion filed in Sacramento County Superior Court says investigators may have the wrong man, saying the evidence points to somebody else who hasn't been charged. The motion asks the court to bring a new suspect into the trial, a man identified as a "Juggalo gang member."

A Juggalo is a fan of the band Insane Clown Posse and can be recognized by facepaint typically made to look like a clown. There are both violent and nonviolent sects of Juggalo culture. The name derives from the band's 1994 song "The Juggla."

Defense attorney Kevin Adamson, who is not involved with the trial, said this is more than just floating a new name.

"What the court will look at is whether there's more than a mere suspicion that it was somebody else," he said. "You actually have to have evidence that somebody else committed the crime."

According to the motion, the new suspect had a plan to meet the victim on the night of the murder, and that his criminal record includes an arrest for possessing knives.

The trial continues on Tuesday.