Please see our “Did You Know?” section toward the end of this issue.

Topic: Identikit pictures of criminals could soon be as easy as DNA

During the survey we conducted in our one-year anniversary issue, it was suggested that we include upcoming events and conferences relating to DNA and Forensics. As we approach the end of 2006, it seems that many organizations are putting together their meeting agendas for the upcoming year. If there are any events you would like for us to mention, please send me the name and dates with a website link for further details. So far, the AAFS – American Academy of Forensic Sciences has scheduled its 59th Annual Meeting for February 19 through 24, 2007 in San Antonio, Texas. For further information, please go to http://www.aafs.org/default.asp?section_id=meetings&page_id=aafs_annual_meeting. 

News stories from the past two weeks include the fact that in several states across the US, the “total number of DNA [database] matches in property-crime cases has exceeded the number of matches in violent crimes”, indicating an increasing use in identifying suspects in these types of crimes.

In California “a pilot program that seeks to identify rape suspects faster by quickly processing DNA evidence from 800 cases in Southland could begin by November.” “The Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center plans to start collecting an additional swab of evidence from sexual assault victims, which will be sent to the state Department of Justice's DNA lab where it will be processed in five days.”

In Virginia, though “felons are required to provide DNA samples, authorities believe thousands may have eluded the process, blunting the effectiveness of one of the state's best crime-fighting tools.”

“Some immigration lawyers worry that U.S. authorities are increasingly requiring DNA tests even when the paperwork is in order — adding substantial costs and delays to an arduous process.”

Following these news stories, you will find a number of new and ongoing cases involving DNA evidence.

DNA database used to help solve thefts 

The national database of criminals' DNA, designed by the FBI to help solve rapes and murders, increasingly is being used to identify suspects in unsolved burglaries and other property crimes, a USA TODAY review of state crime lab records shows.

In 10 states — Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Virginia and Wisconsin — the total number of DNA matches in property-crime cases has exceeded the number of matches in violent crimes, the review indicates.

Other states also are reporting increases in property-crime matches: Of Georgia's first 171 matches, only 13 involved DNA from the scenes of unsolved burglaries. Of the 300 matches that followed, 79 were in burglary cases.

Oregon state police DNA analyst Brian Ostrom says there are many reasons for the rise in property-crime matches.

DNA testing has become more sophisticated, he says, allowing analysts to draw genetic profiles from evidence left at burglary scenes — palm prints, cigarette butts, sweat stains on gloves and masks — nearly as easily as they can get profiles from blood or semen at the scenes of violent crimes. And government grants for testing evidence, initially limited to violent crimes, now can be used to analyze DNA from property crimes.

Since 1990, the states, the federal government and the military have collected DNA from those convicted of felonies — serious crimes punishable by more than a year in prison — and stored the genetic profiles in computer databases.

Several states collect DNA from those convicted of misdemeanors, such as minor assaults. With FBI software, the profiles are compared with DNA from crimes. The system was designed to "solve violent crimes," its mission statement says.

The database contains DNA profiles from about 3.5 million people and has scored matches in about 38,000 cases, FBI scientist Thomas Callaghan says. The system adds about 25,000 profiles a month.

The FBI does not keep track of the types of crimes for which the system scores DNA matches, nor does it track how many matches produce arrests or convictions. USA TODAY compiled statistics on matches by reviewing records in the 20 states that account for about 85% of the system's matches.

Critics say using DNA to solve non-violent crimes could raise privacy concerns by dramatically expanding the database. Some question spending millions of dollars to probe such crimes. "For what it does in terms of cost, and in threats to civil liberties, (the database) has to justify itself much better," University of Minnesota political science professor Jay Aronson says.

Backers of expanded DNA testing say burglars often go on to commit more serious crimes. In Alabama, about 80% of the rapes solved via DNA databasing in the past five years were linked to criminals whose DNA was taken after a burglary conviction, state forensic biology chief Angelo Della Manna says.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref01.html 

Program to speed process in rape cases

A pilot program that seeks to identify rape suspects faster by quickly processing DNA evidence from 800 cases in the Southland could begin by November.

The Rape Treatment Center at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center plans to start collecting an additional swab of evidence from sexual assault victims by next month, according to Gail Abarbanel, the director.

This extra swab will be sent to the state Department of Justice's DNA lab where it will be processed in five days. The resulting DNA profile will be checked against the state's DNA database to see if there is a match. CalDNA contains 575,000 DNA profiles from convicted felons.

"A lot of rapists are repeat offenders. If we can identify them earlier, we can take them off the streets," Abarbanel said.

She said the rape center, in conjunction with the Attorney General's Office, came up with the idea for the pilot program called the Fast Track Forensic Program.

The idea is that by processing the DNA evidence faster, a suspect will be identified sooner. Even if no matches are found in the state database, there is still the DNA profile created from the evidence.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref02.html

Va. databank doesn't list all state's felons

Though Virginia's felons are required to provide DNA samples, authorities believe thousands may have eluded the process, blunting the effectiveness of one of the state's best crime-fighting tools.

Charlottesville police Capt. J.E. "Chip" Harding said he was tipped off to the problem when he noticed that several suspects in a serial rapist investigation -- all felons -- weren't in the state's huge DNA database.

"I began to wonder just how many more were missing," said Harding, who started talking to state and local officials about the problem. "Now I think there's probably thousands."

The Charlottesville area has its share. This summer, the adult probation office that covers the city and Albemarle County compared its list of 600 supervised felons to the DNA databank, Harding said. A total of 125 felons were not listed in the databank.

Charlottesville and Albemarle authorities plan to bring the felons in next month to take DNA samples.

How the felons avoided giving samples is unclear, Harding said.

"But I don't suspect this is a Charlottesville-area problem," he said. "I think there's probably thousands of cases out there where felons . . . should be in the database and aren't.

"I'm not saying I know the scope of the problem. It could be 20 percent or could be far less, but we need to find out," Harding said. With the help of crime victims, he successfully lobbied in 1997 to fully fund the DNA databank, which then had a large backlog of samples to be processed.

Police use the databank -- which has about 260,000 samples -- as an investigative tool. Genetic evidence from a crime scene is compared to DNA samples in the databank. If there is a match -- known as a cold hit -- authorities can use the lead to help solve murders, rapes and other crimes.

Paul Ferrara, the head of the state's Department of Forensic Science, said there have been about 3,600 cold hits since the databank was started in 1989.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref03.html

Immigrant DNA tests fuel unease

DNA testing has emerged as a powerful and sometimes controversial tool for U.S. residents seeking to help overseas relatives enter the country legally.

The tests have been invaluable for thousands of citizens or permanent residents who want to sponsor relatives but lack birth certificates or other documents to prove the family relationship. But some immigration lawyers worry that U.S. authorities are increasingly requiring DNA tests even when the paperwork is in order — adding substantial costs and delays to an arduous process.

“What’s troubling is that it seems like the availability of DNA testing is leading to a greater level of mistrust of identity documents that otherwise would have been readily accepted,” said Alison Brown, a lawyer in Silver Spring, Md.

Last year, about 718,000 people were granted permanent residency or a temporary visa on the basis of being a parent, child or sibling of someone who was a U.S. citizen, permanent resident or temporary visa holder.

Officials at the State and Homeland Security departments said they do not track the number of DNA tests submitted by people seeking to sponsor a relative for a visa. The AABB (formerly the American Association of Blood Banks), the accrediting organization for laboratories that do DNA testing for immigration applications, receives about 12 e-mails or phone calls a day from people seeking referrals for immigration purposes, a spokeswoman said.

Immigration lawyers interviewed in the Washington area said that officials who process visa applications at U.S. consulates overseas appear to be driving the increase in DNA testing.

“In many consulates, DNA testing has really become the norm,” said Daniel Park, whose Alexandria, Va.-based practice serves mostly clients from Latin America.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref05.html

New and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence include:

California - Police say DNA evidence collected at the scene led them to Charles Bevin, an unemployed San Jose man, who was already in custody at San Jose's main jail on unrelated charges.  
 
He now faces charges in the Aug. 22 incident in Mountain View, including robbery, false imprisonment, elder abuse and auto theft. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref06.html 

Colorado - Forensic evidence from the scene of a sexual assault in Aurora matched DNA placed in a databank that came from an unrelated case in Ohio, leading to the arrest of a suspect.

Aurora police spokesman Marcus Dudley said Mohammed Abdislan Abdi, 21, is suspected of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman on Oct. 2.

At the time of his arrest, Abdi was being held by Denver police for investigation of felony menacing. He remains in custody at the Denver County Jail on $2 million bail.

Police are looking into a possible connection between Abdi and Travis Kirk Bland, 22, who was arrested recently in connection with the sexual assault of a 75-year-old woman on Oct. 11t.

Forensic evidence was used to identify Bland who had been in jail on an unrelated theft charge.

There is a possibility Bland may be connected in the South Geneva Way assault because of similarities in the way the crimes were committed.

Bland is being held at the Arapahoe County Detention Facility on charges of sex assault and kidnapping. His bail also is $2 million.

Source:

http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref07.html

Virginia - A Charlottesville man pleaded guilty Tuesday to raping a former University of Virginia law school student in a case that spawned a controversial lawsuit.

John Henry Agee admitted to sexually assaulting the woman, then 23, as she walked home from a party in September 2005 and acknowledged in an Alford plea that prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a rape conviction.

Agee, 38, faces two life prison terms when he returns to court Jan. 18 for sentencing.

The victim, who has since transferred to Georgetown University, originally identified another man as the rapist. Christopher Matthew was charged, but police released him after DNA evidence showed he was not the attacker.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref08.html

Florida - The Niceville Police Department arrested an Alabama man after laboratory tests tied him to a seven-year-old rape case.

Kelvin Lamar Moore, 26, of Prichard, Ala., has been charged with kidnapping a woman at gunpoint in the former Delchamps Food Store parking lot in December 1998 and forcing her to have sex with him in his car, according to a Niceville police report.

In September 2001 DNA was found on the woman’s clothing saved as evidence from the rape, according to the report.

In March 2006, test results showed the DNA matched a sample taken in 2005 from Moore, an inmate in an Alabama jail on unrelated charges.

Moore has been charged with aggravated sexual battery, grand theft of a vehicle and kidnapping, according to the report.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref09.html

New Jersey - Police said for the last two years they've been looking for Elmo Rivadeniera, an accused serial rapist they said is responsible for at least three sex attacks in New York City and New Jersey. 
 
Investigators said they’re also close to linking Rivadeniera to six additional rapes. 
 
In all of the attacks, which took place in crowed areas of Manhattan and suburban neighborhoods in New Jersey, the victims were abducted, usually at knifepoint. 
 
They were then taken to a remote area, raped, and then left -- often naked -- in industrial sections of Newark and Elizabeth.  
 
Detectives got their break when they found Rivadeniera's DNA on his cell phone, which he dropped during an attempted abduction. 
 
"It was traced to a repair shop, which led us to an individual, who reported to us that they gave the phone to Elmo Rivadeniera," Hudson County prosecutor Ed Defazio said. 
 
Rivadeniera now has access to a cell in the Hudson County Jail, where he's being held without bail on kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, and other charges. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref11.html 

Maine - A DNA match led police to arrest Michael Hutchinson this spring in the murder of Crystal Perry, 12 years after she was stabbed to death in her home in Bridgton. 

Now, his lawyer wants that genetic link thrown out before the case goes to trial.

Hutchinson was subjected to a "warrantless search" when he was forced to give a DNA sample following a conviction in 2002 for criminal threatening, said attorney Robert Andrews.  

Just as the Constitution prohibits police from kicking in doors and searching houses at random, it should keep police from collecting biological evidence from people because some may be guilty of other crimes, Andrews said. 

In almost every case, courts have disagreed, ruling that collecting DNA is a small intrusion on an individual that is outweighed by an overwhelming public safety interest in solving past crimes.  

But there have been nagging concerns from civil libertarians who argue that, in addition to fighting crime, DNA databases have the potential to invade people's privacy. 

Andrews' motion to suppress the DNA evidence is one of several in the Hutchinson case that will be heard before his trial, which is scheduled for March. 

Marchese said that would be unlikely. Collecting DNA is not a constitutional violation, no more than the collection of fingerprints from every person who is arrested, she said.

Courts have not required suspicion of a specific crime to justify the collection of DNA. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref12.html

New York - Rochester families who are part of a growing body-parts theft ring have been told that some of the stolen body parts may have been located.  
 
When Brooklyn prosecutors raided the Brighton office of Biomedical Tissue services last year, the coolers used to transport body parts were found to be empty.  
 
But authorities had been onto Michael Mastromarino and his alleged scheme for some time.  
 
Many of the tissues and body parts taken from victims hadn't made it all the way through the pipeline to tissue banks.  
 
"Joe" (not his real name) has provided key information to officials investigating the cases in Brooklyn and in Rochester.  
 
His 78-year-old father was one of the first local victims traced to a forged consent form.  
 
Joe said, "Permission was given for bones and skin, so we can only assume they skinned him like an animal and stole his bones and parted him out to God-knows-who."  
 
Prosecutors won't discuss their evidence publicly, but sources confirm they've recovered undistributed body parts and tissues that could be key to connecting the chain of events.  
 
In Brooklyn, X-rays of exhumed bodies provided key evidence. Most of the bodies in the Rochester cases were cremated.  
 
The discovery of an inventory of tissues and other body parts allows investigators to use forensic tests to prove their claims.  
 
Joe said, "They're now asking us for DNA samples so they can match the families to the parts they have in different places…I doubt if we'll ever get all of him back."  
 
Families have been asked to submit hair brushes or tooth brushes from their loved ones for potential DNA matches. If those items aren't available they will use the DNA of family members to try to make a reasonable match.  
 
Monroe County District Attorney Mike Green said the crime lab was a key component in this investigation, but he would not talk about specific evidence.  
 
There are up to 70 victims. Separate DNA matches would have to be made for each item taken from each victim, which could be hundreds of matches.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref13.html

Vermont - The man who was the last person seen with a University of Vermont student was charged with sexually assaulting and killing the 21-year-old senior, who died of strangulation and blunt-force trauma, authorities said.

DNA evidence found during the autopsy of Michelle Gardner-Quinn matched samples taken from Brian L. Rooney, 36, a construction worker who is to be arraigned today on a charge of aggravated murder, police said. If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Test results police received yesterday indicated DNA from blood found on jeans Rooney wore Oct. 7, the day Gardner-Quinn disappeared, matched semen found on her body.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref14.html 
 

Texas - Austin Police have arrested Dennis Ray Goodman for the February sexual assault of a woman. They connected him to the crime by matching a DNA sample found on the victim with a sample on file in a crime lab database.  
 
On July 21st, a doctor from the crime lab produced a match of the DNA with a specimen in its DNA databank of offenders.  
 
Police say they obtained a search warrant to get a saliva sample from Goodman Sept. 14, and established a match between it and the sample in the databank.  
 
Goodman has been charged with aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony, and his bail has been set at $40,000. He is in custody at the Travis County Jail now. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref15.html 

Indiana - A man connected with a murder through DNA matching was sentenced this afternoon to 65 years in prison. 

A Marion Superior Court jury convicted Randy Johnson, 44, of murder earlier this month. 

He was arrested in the death of Melissa Handlon, 22, whose body was found stabbed several times inside her apartment in July 2003.  
 
Investigators compared DNA evidence with samples in a state database of DNA collected from convicted felons, and Johnson came up a match. 
 
Judge Robert Altice Jr. praised Handlon's family for sitting through the trial. Johnson maintained his innocence and said he would appeal.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref17.html

Texas - Arguments in the trial of Tejano singer Joe Lopez are underway.

He's accused of drugging and molesting an underage girl. Prosecutors presented DNA evidence they say links Lopez to the crime.

According to prosecutors, a pair of shorts the singer was wearing at the time of alleged rape had both his and the victim's DNA on it.

The defense claims the science behind the DNA isn't credible.

The prosecution is expected to wrap up soon. The defense will then begin their arguments. They're expected to call 10 witnesses.

If convicted, Lopez faces life in prison.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref18.html

Pennsylvania - The Pennsylvania Game Commission said Tuesday the three men accused of illegally shooting deer in November 2005, and charged months later after DNA testing was performed, pleaded guilty and agreed to pay thousands in fines.

Robert O. Fewster, 29, of Fawn Grove; James L. Fewster Sr., 49, of Baltimore; and Ronald C. Wade, 55, of Halethorpe, Md. were charged in September.

The three pleaded guilty during several hearings held between Oct. 2 and Oct. 11, District Justice Nancy Edie's office confirmed this morning.

The case was reportedly the first time the southeastern York County game warden used DNA evidence in a case. The testing confirmed exactly how many deer the defendants had killed, said Guy Hansen, the wildlife conservation officer who handled the case.

Determining the exact number of deer resulted in thousands of dollars in additional fines, which outweighed the cost of the testing.

According to the game commission, the three men were found with guns, in hunting clothing and literally red-handed - with blood on their hands - a week before the scheduled start of the 2005 firearm deer season.

Hansen said officers heard shots and went to the Fewster property in Peach Bottom Township, finding a freshly killed deer. A tracking dog followed a trail from the woods to the Fewsters' home and found a freezer full of meat.

The amount was more than one deer could provide, Hansen said, but because the flesh had been processed, it was impossible to tell how many deer were in the freezer.

Hansen originally guessed between four and seven deer; the DNA results showed the number was seven, adding thousands of dollars in fines to the amount the men had to pay.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref19.html

Texas - A Texas man on death row for the 1993 killing of a 7-year-old girl is seeking a retrial retried based on DNA technology not available at the time of his trial.

Attorney Phil Wischkaemper filed a petition for a retrial for Michael Blair, who was convicted of abducting and killing Ashley Estell in Plano, Texas, in 1993, as tissue found under the girl's fingernails did not come from Blair.

Wischkaemper said the new DNA testing shows the tissue samples came from at least two different men, neither of which was Blair, The Dallas Morning News reported.

At Blair's 1994 trial, the strongest evidence against him was hair similar to Blair's found on the girl's body and hair similar to hers found in Blair's car. However, in 2002, the hair samples underwent DNA testing and were found not to belong to Blair or the girl.

The newspaper said even if Blair does get a retrial and is cleared, he will only be taken off death row, as he is serving three consecutive life sentences of aggravated sexual assault of a child after pleading guilty to the charges in 2004.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref20.html

Ohio - In September 1970, Sharon Leichtman Katz' husband, Nathan, found her dead in 8 inches of water in the bathtub with twine tied around her neck.

A 21-year-old senior Ohio State University student, Katz had married her husband and moved to Columbus from Dayton only nine months before the slaying.

While the police had several suspects at the time, including several construction workers, no one was ever charged with the crime.

Last weekend, Columbus police matched DNA collected 36 years ago to the DNA of James A. Keifer.

According to Columbus Detective Ralph Taylor, Keifer had been questioned at the time of the murder and later charged with a similar crime making him an immediate suspect.

But in 2002, 53-year-old Keifer died and was cremated, making it nearly impossible for police to gather DNA. Taylor, however, obtained permission from Keifer's parents to compare their DNA with that found at the time of the murder.

Leichtman, who now lives outside of Cincinnati, said knowing Keifer is dead brings some closure to him and his two sisters.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref21.html 

New York - In a bizarre epilogue to a trial packed with twists, the man who authorities say helped Martin Heidgen trip up a DNA test also was convicted yesterday, of second-degree robbery, a law enforcement source said. 
 
Marco Hernandez, 25, of Hempstead, somehow gave his saliva to Martin Heidgen on the night police were set to take a DNA swab from his mouth, the source said. The test was to verify that blood taken after the crash - which had high blood-alcohol content - was Heidgen's. When police tested the swab, it came back with two people's DNA on it - Hernandez's and Heidgen's, the source said. 
 
Prosecutors said at the time that the second DNA sample came back to an unknown man who was suspected of a statutory rape in 2003. They said they believed that offender was in the Nassau County jail on an unrelated charge and said they would look into charging him with statutory rape or with tampering with evidence. 
 
District attorney's office spokesman Eric Phillips said his office is still looking into charges against the offender, whom he did not identify. 
 
Yesterday, Hernandez was convicted of second-degree robbery for stealing a jersey and chains from a Westbury man and his mother in March. 
 
Hernandez's lawyer, Kenneth Ross of Legal Aid, did not return calls seeking comment. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref22.html 

New York – According to DNA testing, a hair sample found in the palm of a woman killed in 1988 does not belong to Mark Christie.

As a teenager, Christie bragged to friends that he killed Viola Manville of Hilton. He is now in prison for killing four-year-old Kalie Poulton of East Rochester in 1994. 
 
Frank Sterling is in prison for the beating death of Manville. Sterling confessed to killing Manville on tape, but later recanted. His lawyers pressed for DNA testing on the hair and other evidence.

A Monroe County court judge ruled no further testing was warranted. The District Attorney’s office and a lawyer for Sterling argued before a state appeals court Monday morning.

"We think sufficient testing has been done. There has to be a line drawn somewhere,” said Assistant District Attorney Wendy Lehmann.

"I don't know if he's innocent or not innocent. My contention is this evidence might tell us,” said Sterling’s attorney, Donald Thompson.

The DA’s office is working with Sterling’s lawyers on how to test remaining evidence.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref23.html

Philadelphia - The three members of Duke University's lacrosse team charged with rape say they had expected DNA testing to clear them of a crime they insist they did not commit.

In an interview on CBS's 60 Minutes, the three said they were frustrated when authorities continued to pursue the case after those tests failed to find a match with the accuser.

"We were told it would help to clear everything up," said Collin Finnerty, 20, who was interviewed along with Reade Seligmann, 20, and David Evans, 23. "So we were happy to go."

The accuser, a student at nearby North Carolina Central University, told police she was raped in a bathroom by three men at a March 13 off-campus team party where she had been hired to perform as a stripper. A trial is not expected to begin until next spring.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref24.html

Florida - Police say they've arrested a man they believe committed more than a dozen sexual assaults in north Miami-Dade and southern Broward counties since January.

Police say the 29-year-old man is a registered sex offender who has been linked by DNA to two attempted armed sexual batteries.

Investigators believe he may also be responsible for more than a dozen other cases of intruder sexual assaults or break-ins.

Authorities have been searching for this alleged stalker for months, urging residents to lock windows and doors.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref25.html

Louisiana - Nine years after he was convicted of rape and burglary and 11 years after his arrest, DNA tests have cleared Allen Coco's name and record.

The 38-year-old man had insisted since his arrest in 1995 that he was innocent. The 28-year-old victim had chosen his picture from a photo lineup. 

Prosecutor Wayne Frey dismissed charges against Coco on Thursday, after getting results from a second round of DNA tests, and Judge Kent Savoie released him.

Savoie had ordered a new trial for Coco in July, after state and defense attorneys agreed that DNA tests failed to link him to the crime.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref26.html

Texas - A 31-year-old man already facing trial on two rape charges was indicted this week on a third charge of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit sexual assault.

The felony indictment was returned Wednesday against Jose G. Carrillo, who remains a suspect in roughly a dozen other sexual attacks dating to December 2004.

Carrillo was in federal custody on an illegal-immigration hold in March when officials said DNA evidence linked him to the June 17, 2005, rape of a woman.

He was indicted on two charges of aggravated sexual assault stemming from those attacks.

During the Tarrant County district attorney's ongoing grand jury investigation, Carrillo was linked to the third case.

Prosecutors have said that a woman identified Carrillo in a lineup as the man who entered her Haltom City home in February through an unlocked door.

He told her that he had a knife and that if she went to the police, her children's lives would be in danger, authorities have said.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref27.html

Did You Know?

Topic: Identikit pictures of criminals could soon be as easy as DNA

SCIENCE is on the verge of being able to show police what murderers, rapists and other criminals actually look like from DNA they leave at the scene.

Angela van Daal, a biomedical and forensics expert from Queensland's Bond University, says it might take as little as five years before her breakthrough research becomes crime-fighting reality.

Her work could give investigators the ability to create an identikit picture of an offender, without the help of witnesses.

Dr van Daal said she had already been able to link a series of genetic markers to complex human characteristics such as height, skin, eye and hair colouring and some facial features.

Further research is expected to be able to show how far apart someone's eyes are set, whether they have a large or small nose and the general shape of their cheekbones.

"What I want to be able to do is take DNA from a crime scene and predict, with some degree of confidence, what the person who left the sample may look like," she said.

"It's in the area of colouring where we've been making most progress, I guess - we don't have the complete picture and that will be a while, but we certainly have some information to work with."

Two major scientific developments make the groundbreaking work possible: the decade-long US Human Genome Project to identify all 25,000 genes found in human DNA and the capacity to replicate DNA strands from the most minuscule fragments of hair, blood, skin, saliva and semen.

Successful samples are even being collected from oils secreted through hands and other parts of the body that brush or rub against objects at a crime scene.

Dr van Daal said the only possible limitations were the environmental factors that contributed to the way a person looked.

"Obviously some people are naturally thin, but work hard at not being so because they put a lot of junk food in their mouths," she said.

"Those things we will simply not be able to predict in the same way. We might be able to say what's likely but that's not going to take into account their diet. Obviously, a person can also alter their hair colour."

Dr van Daal said there was potential for her work to apply to cold-case crimes where useable DNA samples were kept.

NSW Police Forensic Services Director Carlene York is surprised at the claim that suspect identikits would be based on DNA so soon.

"While the community sometimes worries about what we do with DNA, it's obviously something that could be very useful to us," Assistant Commissioner York said.

"Providing the appropriate protocols and processes were put in place, as an intelligence tool, it's potentially terrific."

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_30_oct_06/vol30_ref29.html 

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