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Defendant testifies he falsely confessed to killing teacher

Scales of Justice
Posted at 1:45 PM, May 17, 2022
and last updated 2022-05-17 16:30:45-04

OCILLA, Ga. (AP) — OCILLA, Ga. (AP) — The man on trial for the murder of a Georgia teacher who vanished in 2005 says he gave a false confession to investigators. Ryan Duke took the witness stand Tuesday in Irwin County Superior Court and testified that he never harmed Tara Grinstead and wasn't at her home when she was killed. Duke's testimony contradicts the confession recorded by Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents in 2017. Jurors previously saw the video in which Duke said he broke into Grinstead's home to steal money for drugs and fatally struck her when she came up behind him. On the witness stand, Duke said the real killer was his friend Bo Dukes, who was convicted in 2019 of helping burn Grinstead's body.