Trial in 1991 killing in Licking County starts Tuesday

NEWARK — A trial is set to start Tuesday for a North Canton man accused of killing a Columbus woman more than 25 years ago.

Gustave Sapharas, 73, faces charges of aggravated murder and murder after DNA evidence connected him to the long-unsolved killing of Bonita Parker. The 21-year-old’s body was found in August 1991 along Mill Street and Route 16 in Licking County in an area that is now part of Pataskala. An autopsy showed she died of a single stab wound in the heart.

Investigators identified no suspects at the time, but advancements in DNA Sapharas science have helped tie Sapharas to the crime.

Interviewed at his Stark County residence, Sapharas told detectives that he had sex with the victim in 1991, according to documents. He has not admitted murdering her, however.

Sapharas has a criminal record that includes multiple counts of rape and assault. At the time of Parker’s death, he was on parole after serving time for rape and carrying a concealed weapon in the mid-1970s in Summit County, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction records.

He returned to prison in October 1991 after a stabbing incident involving a woman in Delaware County, according to Dispatch archives.

In March 2017, he was arrested and charged with causing Parker’s death sometime between Aug. 11 and Aug. 13, 1991, according to documents.

Sapharas pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been in the Licking County jail on a $1 million bond.

His trial in Licking County Common Pleas Court, before Judge Thomas Marcelain, is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. Tuesday and is expected to last several days.