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Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue. By August of 2006, 5 states including California, Louisiana, Minnesota, Texas and Virginia began collecting DNA from arrestees, expanding the collection of profiles from only those convicted of serious violent crimes such as rape and murder. That number has now more than doubled, with one of the latest being Michigan, where the State Senate has voted to require anyone arrested for a violent crime to submit a DNA sample. And in January of 2009, a new Justice Department rule is scheduled to take effect, expanding the FBI crime database to include DNA from all people arrested for federal crimes and noncitizens who are detained. 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 NewsMich. Senate OKs DNA samples from suspects The Michigan Senate has voted to require anyone arrested for a violent crime to submit a DNA sample. State law already requires a DNA sample when someone is convicted of a felony or certain misdemeanors. Supporters say expanding the requirement to include arrested suspects would help police solve cold cases, prevent more crimes by catching repeat criminals earlier and absolve the innocent.
New DOJ Rule Expands FBI Database to Include Arrestee DNAA new Justice Department rule scheduled to take effect Jan. 9 expands an FBI crime database to include DNA from all people arrested for federal crimes and noncitizens who are detained. The rule is being criticized by civil libertarians, the Washington Post reports. The measure published on Wednesday “dramatically expands” the current FBI database, which contains information on convicted federal criminals and arrestees from 13 states, the story says. Source: www.abajournal.com
New and Ongoing Stories Involving the Use of DNA Evidence
Florida - After remaining a mystery for 11 years, the murder of little Michael Livingston Malcolm Jr. may have finally been solved. Now, the person charged in connection with his untimely death is the neighbor who discovered the five-year old’s lifeless body after he went missing in 1997.
Source: www.sfltimes.com
California - After 17 years, a cold case DNA match led authorities to arrest a paroled burglar in the slaying of a woman who was raped and stabbed in her Richmond District home in 1991, San Francisco police said Wednesday. Otis Hughes, now 56, was released in October from state prison after serving 17 years for burglary. That month, authorities linked his DNA sample - which he apparently gave when he was released - to evidence from the Feb. 27, 1991, slaying of Karen Wong. Source: www.sfgate.com
New York - Accused cop killer Lillo Brancato's blood was on a latex glove left at the scene of a burglary and tiny shards of glass were found on his boots, witnesses said Tuesday. The evidence is significant because it ties Brancato, the former "Sopranos" actor facing murder charges in the 2005 shooting death of off-duty cop Daniel Enchautegui, to a break-in. Police say the cop was killed as he tried to stop Brancato and a pal from burglarizing a home. A forensic expert testified that four bloody gloves with Armento's and Brancato's blood were found at the scene - and that a glove found on the window had the blood of both suspects. "[The] glove contained a mix of DNA," Dr. Tara Santore, a DNA expert with the city medical examiner's office said. "...which turned out to match Lillo Brancato and Steven Armento." Source: www.nydailynews.com
Missouri - A judge on Monday sentenced Curtis L. Cornelius, 46, of Kansas City, to 25 years in prison in a 17-year-old rape case — thought to be one of Jackson County’s oldest DNA cases. According to court documents, in September 1991, a masked man entered the 36-year-old victim’s bedroom while she slept. He raped her twice at knifepoint while her two daughters slept in another room. Cornelius was charged in a 1992 sexual attack against three other women and a 12-year-old boy but later was acquitted. However, DNA collected from the 1992 scene eventually linked him to the 1991 rape. Source: blogs.kansascity.com
New York - A convicted sex offender who was the last person seen with a 25-year-old Brooklyn woman who vanished on Wednesday has been linked by DNA evidence to an unsolved sex crime in New Jersey, the authorities said on Monday. The sex offender, Michael Mele, 23, of Middletown, N.Y., was in the Rockland County Jail, where he was being held on a probation violation unrelated to the missing person case, officials there said. The search continued on Monday for the missing woman, Laura Garza, who was last seen with Mr. Mele in Newburgh, N.Y., about 70 miles north of Manhattan. Source: www.nytimes.com
Connecticut - Even as the years went by, Norma Cruz never gave up hope that someday police would catch the person who killed her 13-year-old daughter after abducting her as she walked to middle school one morning more than 21 years ago. It was DNA evidence found on Lopez that led police to Miranda more than 20 years after the last killing. Source: www.courant.com
Texas - Blood from John Henry Ramirez and the convenience store clerk he is accused of fatally stabbing four years ago was found on clothing and other items collected by police, a DNA analyst testified on Thursday. Ramirez, 24, is being tried on a capital murder charge in the death of 45-year-old Pablo Castro. Castro was taking out the trash on July 19, 2004, at the Times Market on Baldwin Boulevard when he was stabbed and robbed of $1.25. If convicted, Ramirez faces life in prison or the death penalty. Source: www.caller.com
Louisiana - DNA evidence has linked a 47-year-old Baton Rouge man to a decades-old rape. Hollis James Maten was booked this week on one count each of aggravated rape and aggravated burglary. An arrest warrant says the rape occurred March 11, 1986, at the victim's Baton Rouge apartment. DNA evidence taken from the woman after the rape was linked to Maten through a sample taken from him in June 2007. The June sample led to Maten's arrest this year in the 1989 rape of another Baton Rouge woman. Source: www.katc.com
Connecticut - DNA extracted from remains found in a fire pit on Kenneth Otto Sr.'s family's property has been linked to Shamaia Smith, the woman he is accused of killing, a forensic scientist testified Wednesday in Superior Court in Hartford. Source: www.courant.com
New Jersey - Jennifer Parks' blood was on blue jeans found in Jonathan Za rate's bedroom, on a metal pole he admitted beating her with, on a bandanna he shoved in her mouth and on the carpet where she died, but was not detected on a knife found in the jeans or another discovered outside his Randolph home, forensic scientists testified yesterday. Zarate, 21, is accused of beating, stabbing and choking Parks for in sulting his younger brother, and then cutting off her legs to fit her body into a trunk on July 30, 2005. He was caught 24 hours later trying to dump the body off a Rutherford bridge with the help of his brother, then 14, and a 16-year-old Clifton boy. Source: www.nj.com
Texas - Five years after he was wrongfully convicted of sexually assaulting a child, Ricardo Rachell will be released from custody today. Prosecutors and Rachell's attorney appeared before state District Judge Susan Brown this morning to request the 51-year-old Rachell's release on a personal recognizance bond after DNA tests cleared him of committing the 2002 attack. The judge agreed and the Harris County Sheriff's Office began the process of organizing his release. Source: www.chron.com
Colorado - Prosecutor Catrina Weigel told the jury Thursday that “the physical evidence does not lie” in uncovering the person who murdered Boulder businessman Sergio Libman in December 2006. Ryan Barry’s DNA was found on the grip of the murder weapon, she said, and that murder weapon was found in the defendant’s backpack after he fled Boulder to Kansas. Source: www.dailycamera.com
Florida - The plastic bag and duct tape reportedly found with the remains of a child's body in Orlando, Fla., could help tie the unidentified skeleton to missing toddler Caylee Anthony, a forensic pathologist tells FOXNews.com. Pathologists should be able to identify the body quickly from dental records, Baden said, and the plastic and duct tape could provide additional vital clues, including fingerprints. They could also provide clues to how the child died, and to who dumped the body. "The beauty of duct tape — no matter rain, snow, sleet — that fingerprint will stay there," Baden said, adding that if someone used their teeth to rip it, it could yield DNA evidence too. Source: www.foxnews.com
Texas - Moore County prosecutors used DNA from dog feces to convict a man in the home-invasion rape of a Dumas woman. Rufus Sito Nanez III took the stand during his three-day trial and denied attacking the woman in September 2007. Prosecutors argued that Nanez waited for the woman's husband to leave home before breaking into her home and attacking her. At some point, the two tussled in the backyard, where the woman often curbed her dog. Swabs of the family dog's saliva were collected by authorities, along with fecal samples from the shirt and in the yard. All three were linked by scientists at the University of California, Davis, which has a veterinary genetics laboratory to study animal DNA. Source: www.amarillo.com
Did You Know?
How DNA Is Unwound So That Its Code Can Be Read Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute have figured out how a macromolecular machine is able to unwind the long and twisted tangles of DNA within a cell's nucleus so that genetic information can be "read" and used to direct the synthesis of proteins, which have many specific functions in the body. The scientists say that their findings, published in the November 23, 2008 online issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, provide important new insights into this critical DNA unwinding. For more information please go to:
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 |
