Surrounded By Reality

Jun 24, 1980: Charise M. Kamps, 19, is found in her third-floor apartment, 134 W. Gorham St. Armstrong and Kamps had spent the evening together with friends drinking and doing drugs. Armstrong testified he was in Kamps' apartment but he said he didn't kill her. She had been strangled and raped, mutilated
Aug 1980: Ralph Armstrong, 28, is charged with first-degree murder. Armstrong was on parole in New Mexico on a sodomy conviction and four rape convictions.
Mar 1981: Armstrong found guilty, sentenced to life in prison plus 16 years. Riccie Orebia, a cross-dresser said she lied about her testimony, which came after she had been hypnotized, then recanted her identification of Armstrong, and then recanted the recantation.
Nov 1981: Judge denies Armstrong's request for a new trial.
1991: Armstrong motions for a new trial, says DNA testing shows conclusively that semen stains found on Kamps' bathrobe was not his.
1993: Court of Appeals rules Armstrong is not entitled to a new trial even though a DNA test invalidates some of the evidence.
1994: Judge rules DNA tests can be performed on evidence taken from Kamps' apartment.
2000: Judge grants an order from Armstrong's defense team to conduct DNA tests on hair found at Kamps' apartment. Such testing was not available in 1981.
2001: Armstrong asks for a new trial based on new DNA evidence. Dane County Circuit Court Judge denies the request.
May 17, 2001: Ralph Armstrong featured on an "America's Most Wanted" television special. The program featured prisoners who used DNA testing to try to prove their innocence. Armstrong's attorney said DNA tests prove that hairs taken from a bathrobe belt of 19-year-old victim Charise Kamps did not belong to Armstrong. Armstrong is in the Waupun Correctional Institution serving a life sentence.
2004: The State Court of Appeals declines to order a new trial for Armstrong.
July 12, 2005: The state Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision, orders a new trial for Armstrong.
Nov 10, 2006: Retrial delayed until June because attorney, Jerome Buting, will be tied up with the murder trial of Steven Avery.
Apr 17, 2008: Defense attorneys say that Armstrong’s brother confessed to the crime and that state prosecutors have withheld. Attorneys say that a state prosecutor knowingly destroyed DNA evidence that might have proved that it was Armstrong's brother, Steve, who killed Charise Kamps. Steve Armstrong is now dead, and his body was cremated, the filing states. The type of test ordered by then-Assistant District Attorney John Norsetter, which used up the remainder of the DNA sample, could not have distinguished between Ralph and Steve Armstrong because they share a paternal relationship. Norsetter had that test performed in 2006 in violation of a court order. Two people, Fawn Cave and Debbie Holsomback, both of Texas, who say that Steve Armstrong told them in 1994 or 1995 that he raped and murdered Kamps. According to the filing, Steve Armstrong described "in chilling detail" the "lengthy and brutal rape and murder." He also described "appallingly graphic details of his assault, including the use of a broomstick which 'tore up her insides,' " which are consistent with Kamps' murder. Both women said they tried to alert authorities, including the FBI. Holsomback said she spoke at length with a prosecutor in the Dane County district attorney's office who identified himself with the first name of John and said he was the one who originally prosecuted Ralph Armstrong.