WBRZ - Baton Rouge

A Walker native accused of raping and fatally beating 19-year-old Tina Marie Kristynik in her Baton Rouge home in 1985 will go to trial on August 9.

Vernon Kennedy, who already is serving a life sentence in Georgia for a 1995 murder, faces a mandatory life prison term if convicted.

If found guilty in Baton Rouge, prosecutors say the 54-year-old Kennedy will return to Georgia to carry out his life sentence there and will not return to Louisiana unless he is paroled in Georgia.

Prosecutors say DNA evidence and the work of detectives linked Kennedy to Kristynik's homicide.