November  4, 2004                                                                                    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  MEDIA CONTACT:  Curtis T. Hill, Jr., 296-1888  LEER SENTENCED TO SIXTY (60) MORE YEARS IN PRISON                 Elkhart Circuit Court Senior Judge Gene R. Duffin sentenced Dennis Leer to sixty (60) years in the Indiana Department of Corrections for the murder of Marie Kline following last month’s guilty verdict by an Elkhart County jury.  Leer is currently serving a forty (40) year sentence for an unrelated attempted murder conviction from 1988.  Leer was scheduled for release on the attempted murder conviction on November 5, 2008.  Today’s sentence will be served consecutively to the previous forty (40) year sentence.  Under Indiana law, as it existed at the time of the offense, sixty (60) years was the maximum penalty for the offense of murder.  Leer also faces a trial date on February 14, 2005 for an Attempted Escape charge. Leer was charged with attempting to escape from the Elkhart County Jail in the summer of 2003. Leer faces another eight (8) year sentence if convicted of that charge and that time can also be ordered to be served consecutively to his 60 years.                 “My office is hopeful that the family and friends of Marie Kline can now, after seventeen (17) agonizing years, take comfort that some measure of justice has been found at last”, said Prosecuting Attorney Curtis T. Hill, Jr.