Lacrosse DNA speed uncommon

By John Stevenson : The Herald-Sun

DURHAM -- State chemists cranked out DNA results in the Duke lacrosse case in less than two weeks.

But they have worked for six months without finishing DNA tests in a 30-year-old Durham triple homicide.

The difference in turnaround time leaves the lawyer for a man accused in the triple murder wondering why.

"How come they can do 46 DNA samples for lacrosse players at lightning speed and they can't do ours, which were submitted last autumn?" lawyer Tom Loflin said Tuesday.

A team of attorneys announced Monday that, according to tests conducted by the State Bureau of Investigation, no DNA from any Duke lacrosse player was found inside the body of a woman who says three team members raped her.

Also, no DNA was found on the surface of her body or on her clothing and belongings, the defense lawyers said.

The lawyers said the negative DNA results exonerated lacrosse players who attended a March 13-14 house party at 610 North Buchanan Blvd., where the dancer claimed she was raped, sodomized, beaten, kicked and strangled.

But District Attorney Mike Nifong has said prosecution might be possible even without DNA matches.

No one has been charged with any crime.

Noting the high speed of DNA testing in the lacrosse case, Loflin said Tuesday he would seek a court order commanding the SBI to "get on with it" in testing blood samples and other evidence from the triple murder.

State Department of Justice spokeswoman Noelle Talley confirmed the testing was not finished. But she said no one had asked that it be expedited -- as Nifong did in the lacrosse incident.

"The average turnaround time for DNA analysis on current cases is around 60 days," Talley said Tuesday. "Cases where a rush has been requested can be worked more quickly."

The rush job in the lacrosse case did not cause SBI technicians to put everything else on hold, Talley added. She said they "continued to work on other cases while conducting the analysis in this case."

The SBI lab has 33 DNA experts and is in the process of hiring seven more, Talley said.

Loflin represents Gary Ernest "Whitey" Bennett, one of two men arrested last year and charged with the October 1976 deaths of 63-year-old Aubrey Goss, 53-year-old Walter Dean and 37-year-old William Nick Wheeler inside a Driver Avenue garage where liquor was sold.

The slayings were listed as a "cold case" one until new evidence led to the arrests of Bennett and Ronnie Lindbergh Manning last year.

Loflin and defense lawyer Karen Bethea-Shields have said DNA results should indicate whether blood on a suspicious knife matched that of the victims.

According to Loflin and Bethea-Shields, the knife was found inside a car on David Jerry Guy, who later was murdered near Winston-Salem.

If DNA connects the knife to the 1976 triple homicide in Durham, Guy rather than Bennett was the most likely killer, Loflin has argued.

But prosecutor Mitchell Garrell recently told a judge that the car in which the knife was discovered could be linked to Bennett and Manning as well as to Guy. He said evidence indicated Bennett was in the vehicle before and after the Driver Avenue slayings.

"I don't feel good about it, I'll tell you," Loflin said Tuesday of the delayed DNA results. "It's delaying the court proceedings."

"DNA testing is pretty complex and tedious if you do it right," Loflin acknowledged. "These chemists cannot turn around a case in half an hour. So it's amazing to me that they tested as rapidly as they did for these 46 lacrosse players."

Still, Loflin said six months was long enough to wait for results in a case as serious as a triple homicide.

Garrell said Tuesday he had asked state technicians to expedite DNA testing in the case, although not "in the same way" the lacrosse DNA was handled.

"The SBI handles requests for evidence examination from all over the state," he added. "If every case was expedited, requests for expediting would have no meaning."

Garrell also said it was especially important to speed up testing in the lacrosse case because no one has been charged. In contrast, Bennett and Manning have been indicted and are under court supervision even though they are free on bond while awaiting trial.

"There is a real premium on identifying a perpetrator who is unknown, at large and arguably posing a threat to the community," Garrell said.