McCullough pleads ‘not guilty’

This July 27 2011 file booking photo provided by the DeKalb County Sheriff's Department in Sycamore, Ill. shows Jack Daniel McCullough, 71, who has been charged in the 1957 murder of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph in Sycamore.

AP

This July 27 2011 file booking photo provided by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department in Sycamore, Ill. shows Jack Daniel McCullough, 71, who has been charged in the 1957 murder of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph in Sycamore.

By Dave Gong
September 8, 2011

The man charged with the 1957 kidnapping and murder of a 7-year-old Sycamore girl pled not guilty during an arraignment hearing Thursday morning.

During an arraignment hearing, charges are formally read and the defendant is given an opportunity to enter a plea of either guilty or not guilty.

Jack Daniel McCullough, 71, appeared in court via closed-circuit TV and pled not guilty to charges of murder, kidnapping and abduction of an infant.

During the hearing, Circuit Judge Robbin Stuckert said if convicted, McCullough faces 14 years to life in prison for murder, one to five years in prison for kidnapping, and one year to life in prison for the abduction of an infant.

McCullough was indicted by a grand jury on Aug. 19 for the kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph, who disappeared near the corner of Center Cross Street and Archie Place in Sycamore on Dec. 3, 1957.

McCullough is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 22.