WALDORF, Md. -- A convicted child killer has moved into home right behind a Charles County elementary school.
Keith Allen Green, 54, is living in a house with a backyard that backs up on the playground of Dr. Gustavus Brown Elementary School.
Green attacked Claudia Pickeral, 13, as she was walking home from the school bus on February 19, 1997. He ripped her shirt and undid her pants, before beating and strangling her to death and dragging her body into the bushes. He was her next-door neighbor.
A jury convicted him of second degree murder in 1999. He was sentenced to the maximum 30 years in prison, but served just 20 before being released. In August, he moved into a house on University Dr. with a number of other ex-cons.
In a brief conversation at his front door, Green insisted he was wrongly convicted and said he hasn't done anything wrong in the neighborhood.
Dianne Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Charles County Sheriff's Office said the department is well aware of Green's presence and is actively monitoring him. She said he's currently in compliance with all the rules governing his behavior.
Green is on both the Maryland and Charles County sex offender registries. A spokesman for the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Corrections said there are no regulations that automatically prohibit a sex offender from living next to a school.
