Akron cold case heats up with new DNA evidence

AKRON -- Prosecutors have an indictment in a three-year-old murder case

Thirty-three-year-old Garland Marshall -- a church usher and Gulf War veteran -- died in his Dover Avenue home in September 2003, stabbed to death.

"Garland was murdered and the investigation was stalled," says Mary Ann Kovach of the Summit County Prosecutor's Office. "We did not really have a suspect."

But there was a clue.

"There was a DNA sample taken at the time, back in 2003," Kovach says, "some blood splatterings and they just didn't know who it belonged to."

Thirty-year-old Darryl Jackson started serving time at the Richland Correctional Facility for weapons and assault charges last year and his DNA entered the system. Jackson's DNA matched the blood taken from Marshall's home.

Members of Garland's church, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church on South Hawkins Road in Akron, expressed their relief at the indictment. "This will bring closure to our church family that someone has been found and we hope justice will be served," says Diantha Freeman.

Police don't suspect robbery was a motive. Jackson will be arraigned for Garland's murder October 20th.