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Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue. Although labs across the country are faced with tremendous backlogs, efforts continue to be made to speed up the process.
In Florida, for example, the FDLE has been outsourcing some of its cases. While in Wisconsin, more than two dozen DNA analysts have finished training and begun work for the state.
In addition to these stories you will find brief summaries of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA analysis. Every story is followed by a link to its original source, which you can follow for more details. In The News
FDLE speeds up DNA testsLast year the FDLE began outsourcing some of its cases to private labs. The result was a considerable reduction in backlogged cases, from a high of 4,815 in November 2005 to 2,290 at the end of 2007. The backlog stood at 2,687 at the end of May. Not that some cases can't be done quickly. "We've cleared a case in 24 hours," said Barry Funck, the FDLE's forensic services director. When Edward Allen Covington was charged with murdering his girlfriend, Lisa Freiberg, and her two children in May, the FDLE's Tampa Bay Regional Operations Center "jumped on that case real quick and cleared it real fast," Funck said. But most DNA results in nonviolent or lower-priority cases take much longer.
Source: www.tampabay.com
DNA testing expands with new hires, new space MADISON - More than two dozen DNA analysts have finished training and begun work for the state of Wisconsin, some of them in Madison's state crime laboratory with a tripling of space dedicated to DNA testing. Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said the new hires and expanded facilities will continue to shrink a backlog of cases waiting for DNA work and help law enforcement officials receive test results more quickly. "As we turn around crime laboratory information to them more rapidly, while maintaining our accuracy and integrity, we're in the position where we're making our communities safer."
Source: www.wkowtv.com New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA EvidenceWisconsin - A college dropout was charged Friday in the stabbing death of a Wisconsin man, the first arrest in three killings that have frightened some residents of the state capital over the past year. The DNA of former University of Wisconsin-Madison student Adam C. Peterson matched a sample taken from a knife used to kill Joel Marino on Jan. 28, according to a complaint charging him with first-degree intentional homicide.
Source: http://ap.google.com
Texas - DNA testing could have freed Patrick Leondos Waller seven years ago from a life sentence for armed robbery and kept the real criminal in prison. But because former Dallas County District Attorney Bill Hill objected, Mr. Waller's efforts to obtain genetic testing were delayed until last fall. That was long enough for the man science has now identified as the perpetrator to elude justice for the crime that also included a rape and kidnapping. DNA tests have now cleared Mr. Waller. The district attorney's office said two men who recently confessed to the 1992 crime cannot be prosecuted because the statute of limitations has expired. One of the men, whom DNA evidence definitively links to the crime, was paroled in February after serving 15 years for burglary.
Source: www.dallasnews.com
Pennsylvania - A convicted burglar in a work-release program was taken back into custody and charged yesterday with a 2002 rape based on DNA evidence, police said. Jose Quinones, 39, of the 2400 block of Fifth Street, is accused of raping a 28-year-old woman who was in bed with her infant in December 2002 after breaking into her East Madison Street home, Chief Inspector William Colarulo said. While other evidence points to Quinones, Colarulo said, the DNA evidence "sealed the deal."
Source: www.philly.com
Texas - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today set aside Michael Blair’s conviction and granted him a new trial in accordance with the recommendation of the trial court, prosecution and defense attorney. The county granted a retrial after new DNA evidence showed no link between Blair and Estell. Because Blair was convicted in four other cases and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences in those cases, he will remain in custody pending disposition of this case.
Source: www.planostar.com
Washington - A man accused of sexually assaulting a woman on Railroad Avenue more than two years ago will spend 45 months in jail after police linked him to the case using DNA. Alvin Bernard Godette, 42, was sentenced in Whatcom County Superior Court on Tuesday for robbery and indecent liberties, a lesser charge than the initial rape charge. A 21-year-old Bellingham woman told police that she was sleeping in the back seat of her car at about 1:30 a.m. on March 27, 2006, when a stranger broke into the vehicle, raped her and stole her cell phone. A suspect wasn’t initially identified in the case, and police exhausted all known leads. But they filed a DNA sample from the attacker in the Combined DNA Index System, a nationwide DNA database better known as CODIS. Nearly 27 months after the crime, the DNA matched Godette, who was serving time at San Francisco County Jail for unrelated charges of auto theft, receiving stolen property and possessing stolen tools.
Source: www.bellinghamherald.com
Connecticut - A blood spatter on a piece of paper has led police to the man who allegedly burglarized two Grove Street businesses in 2003, just weeks before the statute of limitations would have forced them to drop the case. Thomas Rodriguez Jr., 25, a former Brookfield resident now living in Norwalk, was charged with third-degree burglary and third-degree larceny after DNA tests performed at the state forensic laboratory linked him to the break-ins, in which more than $4,000 worth of office equipment was stolen, police department spokesman Capt. Steve Brown said Tuesday.
Source: www.newstimes.com
Colorado - When David and Dina Weller robbed yet another home in Denver in 2006, investigators traced the couple by analyzing saliva left on a cigarette butt at the crime scene. That DNA evidence connected the pair to a string of burglaries, and each got a 36-year sentence.
Source: http://online.wsj.com
California - During the trial of a 54-year-old man charged with savagely beating his employers to death in their Millbrae home, a criminalist testified that she documented the crime scene in 2006. Joseph Cua's DNA was found on Suzanne Wagner's panties and nylons, found near her body, as well as a doorjamb near Fernand Wagner's body and in the Wagners' black Cadillac, found a few miles away in Daly City. Patel said that a second pair of nylons, as well as white gloves and paper towels, were found in the kitchen trashcan. Defense attorney Edward Pomeroy said that since Joseph Cua was such a close friend he was at their home multiple times a week, and the DNA was transferred during normal day-to-day activities. Prosecutors believe that Joseph Cua murdered the Wagners because they realized he was stealing money from them.
Source: http://origin.insidebayarea.com
Texas - A DNA sample that freed a wrongly convicted man who spent nearly 23 years behind bars implicated another man already in prison who has confessed to the crime, Dallas County prosecutors said Tuesday. DNA evidence collected after the 1985 rape of a Richardson woman matches convicted felon Kenneth Wayne Woodson, the Dallas County District Attorney's Office said. Thomas McGowan was originally convicted of the crime and served nearly 23 years in prison before being released in April.
Source: www.star-telegram.com
Did You Know?
More burglary, theft arrests based on DNA
Twice as many burglary and theft suspects are arrested based on DNA evidence as on more conventional investigative techniques such as eyewitness testimony, a new report concludes. In non-DNA cases, police often rely on a mix of evidence — from fingerprints to witness statements — that result in arrests in 8% of cases, compared with a 16% arrest rate in DNA cases, according to the report released Monday. DNA evidence collected in burglaries and thefts can include a mix of biological material left at crime scenes, including blood, hair or saliva. In one case, blood left on a broken window led to the identification and conviction of a suspect. Funded by the Justice Department, the report was conducted by the Urban Institute, a non-partisan research organization. It reviewed 1,841 cases in which DNA evidence was available from 2005 to 2007 in Denver, Los Angeles, Orange County, Calif., Phoenix and Topeka. DNA also assists in the initial identification of burglary and theft suspects in 31% of cases in which such evidence is available, compared with 12% when police relied on traditional crime-solving methods, the study finds. Source: www.usatoday.com
The DNA Informant is a free bi-weekly email newsletter, published by DNA Labs International. DNA Labs International is a private, ISO 17025 Accredited, Forensic Serology and DNA Identity Testing Laboratory, founded in 2004 by a Board Certified Fellow in Molecular Biology with over two decades of experience in Forensic Serology and DNA Analysis in United States Crime Labs. Our primary mission is to help our clients identify criminals within their jurisdiction by providing timely, accurate and cost effective DNA testing results. To do this we created an organization based on industry best practices from over 20 State Crime Labs around the United States. We are located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, just minutes from the Fort Lauderdale airport. DNA Labs International’s services are now available for individual cases and outsourcing contracts. Please keep us in mind as you start to consider your outsourcing needs, regular and rush cases and DNA case review. Editor: Karen Daurie |
