Police say DNA ties man to murder in catering office

By Keith Herbert

DNA evidence places Jacuqin Byrd at the scene where Main Line catering worker Sarah Boone was killed in January, Montgomery County prosecutors said yesterday.

During a preliminary hearing in Ardmore, county Detective Richard Nilsen said that a State Police lab analysis showed a "DNA mixture" was found on a hammer and a pair of bloody scissors.

The DNA profiles matched those of Byrd and Boone.

Byrd, 27, of Philadelphia, is a former Cricket Catering employee. He was arrested Feb. 16 and accused of killing Boone, 24, of King of Prussia.

Boone, a Harcum College graduate, was working at the catering company, 248 E. Spring Ave. in Ardmore, when she was found stabbed and beaten to death.

Company owner Drew Skinner found Boone's body about 3 p.m. Jan. 26.

"There's a one-in-63 million chance that it could be someone else," First Assistant District Attorney Risa V. Ferman said of the DNA results.

Magisterial District Justice Kathleen Valentine found prosecutors had enough evidence to hold Byrd for trial. He was in custody yesterday without bail at Montgomery County Prison.

"This was a vicious, violent killer" who used three different weapons" - a knife, a hammer and a pair of scissors - said Ferman, speaking to reporters after the hearing.

Testimony did not yield any motive for the killing, and Ferman would not speculate about one.

County Detective Buddy Dinnell, who had gathered evidence at the crime scene, testified that Boone's body was found in a basement bathroom of the catering company's offices, a two-story, red-brick building. There were two deep slash wounds on Boone's neck, two head injuries and defensive wounds on her hands, Dinnell said.

He testified that a door to the storage room leading to where Boone's body was found had been damaged, the wood frame splintered.

Before saying that DNA evidence links Byrd to the crime, prosecutors had circumstantial evidence pointing to Byrd.

Detectives found a message book underneath a desk Boone used, and it contained a copy of a message Boone left for her boss about a man who came to the office asking about work, Dinnell said.

That man was Byrd, police said.

The name on the copy was spelled "Jonqine," and the message included Byrd's cell phone number. It was dated Jan. 26 at 1:37 p.m., Dinnell said.

The original message has not been found, he said.

Two days later, Nilsen took a statement from Byrd at Byrd's home in the 5800 block of North Philip Street. Nilsen testified he told Byrd that detectives were interviewing ex-employees as part of their investigation.

After the interview, Nilsen said he told Byrd that detectives had a problem with his story, and that they had recovered the phone message.

"He interrupted and said, 'How did she spell my name?' " Nilsen testified.

The only way Byrd could have known the name was misspelled was "if in fact he had seen it," Ferman said.

Police also investigated Byrd's claim that, after he heard about the murder on the 5 o'clock television news, he called the catering company "in disbelief," police said.

Byrd's phone records showed that his call to Cricket Catering was placed at 4:37 p.m., and the first broadcasts about the killing occurred at 5:02 p.m., Nilsen said.

After the hearing, defense attorney Joseph Santaguida called the DNA evidence "slightly compelling," and said that a DNA expert might have to be retained for the defense to try to refute it.

"Without the DNA evidence, it's really just conjecture," Santaguida said.

Ferman disagreed.

"The case was very strong circumstantially to begin with," Ferman said. "But the DNA results certainly bolster everything we knew before today."

Philadelphia police said in February they wanted to speak to Byrd about the fatal shooting of Jasmine Wallace, 19, in her Fox Chase apartment in December. Byrd and Wallace knew each other, police said.

Santaguida said yesterday that Byrd had not talked to police about the Wallace case.