Jury trial set in decades-old St. Petersburg cold case murder

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A jury trial date was set Monday for Michael Lapniewski Jr., who was accused of killing an elderly St. Petersburg nearly four decades ago in a cold case investigators say was solved using modern DNA technology.

Lapniewski is scheduled to face a jury beginning Monday, May 11, on a charge of first-degree murder. A judge set aside five days for the trial during a court hearing.

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Lapniewski is charged in the 1987 killing of Opal Weil, an 82-year-old woman found dead inside her St. Petersburg home. Court documents said the cause of death was blunt trauma and strangulation.

The case remained unsolved for more than 30 years…

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