DNA evidence links teen to sex assault

DNA taken from the victim and scene of a November assault is a virtual match for accused attacker Jonathan Powell, a criminalist testified today.

Powell, 16, is on trial today for sexually assaulting a University of Iowa freshman in November.

Michael Schmit, a criminalist with the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation, testified that DNA from blood stains taken from the T-shirt and jeans of the victim are a virtual match to Powell’s DNA. Fewer than one out of 100 billion unrelated people would have the same profile, Schmit said.

Swabs taken from the victim’s fingernails showed two DNA profiles: The victim’s and one that is a 1 out of 51 million match for Powell’s.

The victim recounted that she went out for a walk shortly after midnight on Nov. 12. She was near the Voxman Music Building when she was attacked.

According to the victim’s testimony, Powell wrestled her to the ground and hit her in the head with his knee two times before sexually assaulting her. At one point, the attacker was had the victim up on her feet and was dragging her along, and an older man and a drunken man actually passed them by.

The victim said that after the attack she was lucky for three things:

“To have my virginity, to have my body parts intact, and mostly, to be alive,” she said.

During the struggle, the victim bit the attacker’s left hand, drawing blood. University of Iowa Police Officer Elizabeth Ann Briezelaar testified this morning that she found blood drops on leaves and in the grass near the Voxman Building.

Six days after the attack, Briezelaar testified, she saw Powell doing yard work at a home on Park Road, which is where he lives and is near the UI Arts Campus where the Voxman Building is located.

Powell sat at a table in between his mother and his lawyer, staring down and writing during much of this morning’s testimony. The charges he faces in this trial are second-degree sexual assault and third-degree burglary. He faces other charges from alleged attacks on two female joggers on the UI campus in July and October of last year, but those charges are in abeyance for the time being, said Assistant County Attorney Beth Beglin, who is prosecuting the case.

Today’s trial is a bench trial, meaning the judge will decide guilt or innocence, not a jury. Judge Sylvia Lewis is hearing the case.

At any rate, Powell is being charged as a juvenile, which means that any penalties applied to him should he be found guilty will only be in effect until he is 18 years old.