Preliminary hearing: Day 2: Officials: DNA links defendant to rapes

Three more women and girls testify about being sexually assaulted.

DNA reports that prosecutors say link a defendant to a series of rapes, along with testimony from three young women or girls who were assaulted in Tulsa apartments, were introduced as evidence during a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

In two days of the hearing this week, Tulsa County District Judge Gordon McAllister has heard from 30 witnesses, including seven who prosecutors allege are victims of Gary Lee Graham Jr.'s.

In two other episodes in which Graham is charged, children he is accused of assaulting have not taken the witness stand, but their mothers have testified.

Police maintain that DNA evidence links Graham to a string of crimes, and prosecutors provided McAllister with DNA reports from the Tulsa Police Department's forensic laboratory.

Defense attorney Kevin Adams said he plans to submit DNA evidence to a private lab, retained by the defense, for independent testing.

"My client says he is innocent," Adams said.

The hearing is set to resume June 19 with testimony from a couple of final witnesses.

Graham, 36, is charged with 35 felonies -- one count of first-degree rape, two counts of forcible sodomy, two counts of attempted rape, eight counts of lewd molestation, four counts of first-degree rape by instrumentation, four counts of second-degree rape by instrumentation, one count of kidnapping, one count of attempted kidnapping, one count of sexual battery, nine counts of first-degree burglary and two counts of possession of child pornography.

He also faces a misdemeanor "Peeping Tom" count.

In court Wednesday, a woman who is now 21 said she awakened in her apartment in February 2004 to find a stranger "standing over me, messing with my boxers (shorts)."

She said that at first she thought it was her cat, but then the man held something cold and metallic next to her chin and threatened to kill her if she screamed.

He pulled off her shorts and began touching her below the waist. She noticed that a bedroom window that had been closed was open, according to her testimony.

In another episode, a girl who is now 17 said she was staying at her sister's apartment in July 2004 and was awakened by a man who held a knife to her throat.

She said he told her he would not hurt her if she was quiet but would kill her if she screamed. She realized later that he had pantyhose around his face and wore latex gloves.

Graham is charged in her case with burglary, first-degree rape and two counts each of molestation and rape by instrumentation.

A police laboratory report indicates that Graham, who is white, cannot be excluded as a potential contributor of DNA recovered in an external genital swab administered on that teenager by a nurse examiner.

The probability of selecting a random individual who could have contributed that DNA information is one in 9.9 million U.S. Caucasians, the report states.

In another attack, a 22-year-old woman said she was awakened in August 2004 by a masked man with a knife.

She said that after the man sexually assaulted her with his finger and tongue, "I kicked him between the legs as hard as I could."

She said they struggled; he tried to choke her; and she managed to run to another room. She thinks the intruder used a knife from the kitchen.

In that case, Graham cannot be excluded as a potential contributor of DNA retrieved in a swab of the woman, and the probability of finding a random person who could provide the same DNA result is one in 8.6 million U.S. Caucasians, according to lab reports.

In a case in which a woman testified Tuesday about being told by her 4-year-old daughter in May 2004 that a man "took away my panties," DNA evidence was recovered from toilet tissue and a sheet stain.

Graham could not be excluded as a potential contributor. The probability of selecting a random person who could produce the same DNA result was 1 in 7.1 billion U.S. Caucasians in connection with one item and one in 4.3 trillion U.S. Caucasians in another, reports show.

During the hearing, two girls have identified Graham in court as their attacker, although the defense contends that those identifications were "unduly suggestive."

One girl identified Graham on Tuesday in a courtroom that McAllister had closed to the public at the request of a prosecutor, who cited the child's tender age.

A transcript of her testimony shows that the girl -- now 7 -- indicated that a man broke into her home in the summer of 2005, took her from her bed, touched her with "his private part," covered her mouth when she started to scream, and "threw me out the window."

She said he picked her up outside but then put her down and that she ran back to her house, the transcript shows.