Judge to allow new witnesses in Beach hearing

AP Photo/Matt Gouras

Barry Beach sits during his hearing Tuesday in Lewistown, where witnesses testified a gang of girls was actually responsible for the 1979 murder for which Beach was convicted.

LEWISTOWN — A judge said Tuesday he will weigh the testimony of previously unheard witnesses who could help implicate a gang of girls in the 1979 beating death of a Poplar teenager — and not the man serving a 100-year sentence for the crime.

Barry Beach long ago confessed to killing Kim Nees, describing how he forcibly tried to kiss her and got angry at her for fighting back. He descr...