DNA helps police track break-in suspect

ABINGTON — A DNA match has led police to a Brockton man who now faces charges in connection with a 2002 break-in.

The link — identifying Richard L. Phillips, 44, of 111 Oak Way, apt. 8, Brockton, as the suspect — resulted from the state's DNA data bank that compares DNA samples taken from incarcerated felons with DNA evidence from crimes, according to Police Chief David Majenski.

“It's the first of this type that we've come across,” the chief said. “But, I certainly think it's the future. Not only does it clear people who may have been wrongly accused, but it also finds people who through conventional means we might not be able to capture.”

Majenski credited local and county law enforcement agencies with collecting the evidence at the scene of the crime, a break-in at Top Gas, 225 Brockton Ave., in December 2002.

According to the chief, the suspect broke a window at the gas station and entered and exited the building through that opening. Taken in that theft were more than 100 cartons of cigarettes, valued at more than $4,000.

Police found blood on the glass, an indication the suspect had suffered cuts as he passed through the broken window, the chief said. When fingerprints taken from the scene proved inconclusive, investigators from the Plymouth County Sheriff Department's Bureau of Criminal Investigation sent blood samples to the state police crime laboratory for DNA testing.

The results came back last week, and police obtained a complaint charging Phillips with breaking and entering in the night with intent to commit a felony, destruction of property over $250 and larceny from a building, the chief said.

Phillips is being summoned to court to answer the charges, Majenski added.