SYCAMORE (AP) — The defense has started its case at the Illinois trial of a Seattle man accused of killing a 7-year-old girl in 1957.

Lawyers for Jack McCullough began presenting evidence to the judge in the DeKalb County bench trial Thursday. The 72-year-old has pleaded not guilty to kidnapping Maria Ridulph in Sycamore on Dec. 3, 1957, then killing her. The first defense witness was McCullough's half-sister, who addressed state testimony that her mother said on her death bed in 1994 that McCullough killed Ridulph.

Mary Hunt said her mother seemed delirious at times in the weeks before she died. And Hunt said she never heard her mother mention her brother by name when she talked about knowing Ridulph's killer.