Olathe ? New murder charges have been filed against a former school janitor whose conviction for killing a 13-year-old was reversed last month by the Kansas Supreme Court.

John Henry Horton was found guilty in 2004 of killing 13-year-old Lizabeth Wilson in 1974 and given a life sentence.

In a unanimous decision Feb. 2, the justices said a lower court erred in allowing testimony from a woman who believed Horton had knocked her out with chloroform and sexually molested her when she was 14 years old. The court said the girls’ ages appeared to be the only similarity between the alleged “prior bad act” and Lizabeth’s disappearance and death.

Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline asked the court to reconsider, but the court denied his motion Wednesday. Kline filed the new charges after the ruling.

His office charged Horton with one count of first-degree murder or, in the alternative, felony murder. Horton will be held on $1 million bond.

“It is vitally important that we ensure Lizabeth’s cries for justice be heard,” Kline said. “We firmly believe that these charges are warranted.”

Kline said he formed a task force of police officers, attorneys and local FBI agents to gather new evidence in the case and take a fresh look at evidence from Horton’s first trial. Kline declined to comment on the latest developments in the case.

He said the victim’s family has been told about the new charges and “wants to see justice.”

Lizabeth’s remains were found in 1975 in rural Johnson County. She had gone missing while walking home from a swimming pool a few blocks away.

The cause of the girl’s death was never determined.

Horton was living in Independence, Mo., and working as a janitor at Shawnee Mission East High School in 1974. He was at work the day that Lizabeth disappeared. The girl walked across the school grounds as part of her route.

Investigators suspected Horton early on, but he wasn’t charged until 2003 after the case was reopened and a new witness surfaced.

Prosecutors have said they believe Horton used chloroform to kidnap and molest the girl, but accidentally killed her by using too much chloroform.