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Man Convicted in 25-Year-Old Idaho Woman's Brutal Murder in Case Cold Justice Assisted On
Kelly Siegler speaks out after the Bannock County Prosecutor's Office specifically thanked Cold Justice for providing "a break in the case" in the 2004 stabbing death of Nori Anne Jones.
An Idaho man was found guilty of fatally stabbing a woman in her home nearly 20 years ago, a case that Cold Justice assisted in the investigation of.
On Monday, March 4, 2024, a jury found Brad Scott Compher, 49, guilty of first-degree murder for the stabbing death of 25-year-old Nori Anne Jones, according to the Idaho State Journal. It took four hours for Bannock County jurors to arrive at the verdict, a case that largely focused on DNA discovered during an investigation by Cold Justice.
Jurors found Compher committed the 2004 murder in the act of burglary, rape, or both, according to East Idaho News. Prosecutors dropped a deadly weapon enhancement following the conviction.
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The Bannock County Prosecutor’s Office specifically credited Cold Justice for helping authorities give them “a break in the case,” per a statement sent to Oxygen.com.
“This case has been a long journey for our community and our office,” Bannock County Prosecutor Steve Herzog said. “We are pleased with today’s outcome and hope that this verdict may bring some sense of closure and justice to Nori’s family and our community at large.”
Kelly Siegler covered the case in Season 3’s premiere episode of Cold Justice, now in its seventh season. Since 2013, the true crime series has breathed life into a number of cold cases, assisting local authorities in 59 arrests and 25 convictions, Compher’s marking the latest.
“Justice for Nori Jones and the family was a long time coming,” Siegler told Oxygen.com. “The Bannock County Prosecutors and the Pocatello P.D. never gave up, fighting through the many legal procedural issues they dealt with for so many years. We thank them, and we all mourn the world losing Nori too soon and so tragically.”
On the morning of September 28, 2004, coworkers found Jones stabbed to death in her Pole Line Road home in Pocatello, Idaho, about 160 miles north of Salt Lake City, Utah. In Monday morning’s closing arguments, prosecutor Jonathan Radford walked jurors step-by-step through what they believed happened: that Compher tracked Jones down, tampered with the lights of her rear porch, cut a window screen, and climbed a garbage can to gain entry into Jones’s residence, as reported by Idaho Falls station KIFI-TV.
There, Compher raped and stabbed Jones to death, prosecutors alleged during the 10-day trial.
Deputy Coroner Kim Quick took the stand in February, testifying that the bulk of stab wounds were inflicted to the victim’s head, neck, trunk, and extremities, noting no less than 17 wounds to the chest alone, NBC Pocatello affiliate KPVI-DT reported.
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Quick said she couldn’t determine which of several wounds, including a slash to the victim’s throat, ultimately proved to be the fatal blow. The expert witness noted that “quite the struggle” had occurred inside the home.
The crime scene — in which Jones was found face-down in her bed with the mattress crookedly shifted — was so gruesome that an officer from the Pocatello Police Department (P.P.D.) physically got ill on site, Detective Anthony Busch testified during the trial.
Ultimately, the case went cold.
During filming in 2014, Kelly Siegler and the Cold Justice team urged investigators to use advanced DNA testing on a ring found inside Jones’ home, resulting in Compher’s arrest later that year, per the NBC affiliate. The episode, titled Still of the Night, aired January 9, 2015.
DNA found on the window frame where prosecutors said Compher broke in also yielded damning evidence that was introduced during the trial, establishing the likelihood of another person committing the act was one in 93 trillion, according to KIFI-TV.
Defense attorney Gary Proctor, however, claimed detectives “messed up the crime scene,” also noting that two contributors’ DNA was found in Jones’ postmortem sexual assault kit, none of which belonged to Jones’s boyfriend at the time, according to the Idaho Falls outlet.
"The evidence in this case is so flawed,” Proctor said in Monday’s closing arguments.
Following the guilty verdict, County Prosecutor Steve Herzog thanked multiple agencies for their “diligent efforts to close the case,” including local police, state police, the Bannock County Sheriff’s Office, the Pocatello Fire Department, the FBI, and the investigators from Cold Justice.
Compher now faces life in prison; his mental health previously factored into the decision in 2022 to take the death penalty off the table as a potential punishment. Sentencing is scheduled for April 30, 2024.
Be sure to catch all new episodes of Cold Justice Saturdays at 9/7c on Oxygen.
