DNA Match Prompts Arrest In 2004 Putnam Killing

Putnam County sheriff's detectives said they have caught the man who carjacked and fatally stabbed an East Palakta man two years ago.

Otis Finch Jr., 26, is accused of stabbing 47-year-old Timothy Eugene Curry and leaving him to die in the 100 block of Federal Point Road on Aug. 13, 2004.

Putnam County Sheriff Dean Kelly announced Monday that a murder warrant was served on Finch, a St. Augustine resident, who is current serving a two-year sentence for an unrelated robbery.

Investigators said Curry was seen driving an acquaintance's vehicle, a 1999 Ford truck, the night before he was found stabbed. Jacksonville police stopped what they believed was that truck later that day, and the two brothers inside told officers they were given the truck in exchange for drugs.

Blood found in the truck was analyzed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and in November 2005, a DNA match with that blood sample was made with Finch, who was serving a sentence for an April 2005 robbery in St. Johns County.