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

Topic: New DNA Technology: Sperm Paint

In Wisconsin, crime labs “are on pace to finish 57 percent more DNA tests this year than in 2006”. They are attributing this increase to a number of factors including robotic testing, putting a renewed emphasis on finishing tests and by encouraging local police to reduce the evidence they send in.

Following this story we are including a number of new and ongoing cases involving the use of DNA evidence.

Crime labs step up DNA efficiency this year

MADISON (AP) — The state crime labs are on pace to finish 57 percent more DNA tests this year than in 2006, promising to slow the growth of a backlog Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen inherited when he took office in January, according to state Justice Department figures released Thursday.

The data suggests the labs may finally have a toehold on the hundreds of cases sitting on their shelves waiting for the tests that could solve crimes or seal convictions.

Chippewa County District Attorney Jon Theisen called the new pace “very encouraging.”

Often he wouldn’t get results back in cases unless they were scheduled for trial, a top priority for analysts, he said. Controlling the backlog, he said, will affect courthouses across the state.

The crime labs have brought robotic testing online, encouraged local police to reduce the evidence they send in for DNA tests and put a renewed emphasis on finishing tests, Justice Department spokesman Kevin St. John said.

“It’s simply better time management. We’re trying to maximize the time on casework,” St. John said. “The attorney general is very pleased with where we are now.”

Even with the changes, evidence in 1,854 cases was sitting on crime lab shelves on July 31, up 69 cases from the end of 2006, according to Department of Justice data. But the growth in the backlog was at a fraction of the pace in recent years.

The state crime labs in Madison and Milwaukee have been struggling for years with a backlog of evidence waiting for DNA tests. DNA can identify a suspect with nearly perfect accuracy, all but guaranteeing a conviction.

Police and district attorneys have become more reliant on the tests to solve crimes and win over juries. Submissions of evidence for DNA tests to the crime labs shot up 86 percent between 2003 and 2006, according to a DOJ report in February.

Delays in results can handcuff investigations and prosecutions, leaving criminals roaming free. Van Hollen promised on the campaign trail last year to eliminate the backlog.

He issued a report in February saying he could wipe out the backlog by 2010 if he could talk police into submitting few evidence samples, find efficiencies at the crime labs and get permission of lawmakers to hire 30 new DNA analysts and a lab technician.

The Legislature allowed him to make the hires. The analysts all are on board, St. John said, but they’re in training and haven’t worked on a live case yet.

Even without them, the crime labs have processed 1,058 cases between Jan. 1 and July 31, putting the labs on track to complete 1,813 cases by year’s end. The labs finished 1,152 cases last year.

The Madison lab has fully implemented robotic testing, which DOJ officials have been promising for close to a year, St. John said. That has sped up testing as well as freed up analysts learning how to use the machines.

St. John didn’t know when the robotics fully came online, but said it was within the “last couple of months.” Implementation in the Milwaukee lab is “imminent,” he said, but he had no firm date.

The labs also have turned to new software that tracks equipment inventories, sparing analysts paperwork and allowing them more time to work on testing. And while the new analysts aren’t up to speed yet, the additional lab technician is at work in Madison, cleaning and caring for equipment that, until now, had been analysts’ responsibility.

Discussions with police about limiting submissions have helped, too, St. John said. Over the last three years, submissions grew an average of 24 percent annually. Last month, submissions grew 14 percent.

The DOJ’s goal is 12 percent growth in submissions.

“We assumed our interactions would be able to control the growth, but not stop the growth,” St. John said.

The backlog has grown by an average of 10 cases a month this year, but that’s down from an average of 50 per month over the last two years, St. John said.

“We need the resources we have in training to fully stop the growth and chip away at the backlog,” St. John said. “(But) we are hitting our targets for where we want to be now.”

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref01.html

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

Oklahoma - Authorities in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Ohio are being alerted of a child predator who possibly took pictures of children throughout the Midwest. Thirty-nine year old William “Alex” Field is serving six years in prison for possessing child pornography. He now faces new charges in Missouri in a decade-old, child sex crime.

Field was charged Tuesday with kidnapping a six-year-old girl from Clayton, Missouri, taking her into a garage, and forcibly sodomizing her. The crime occurred in May 1997, it had been inactive until DNA tests pointed to Field.

Last year, Field began serving a six-year sentence at the Missouri state prison for 12 counts of possessing child pornography. Tests of a DNA sample he provided matched the 1997 case.

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch says Field traveled the Midwest taking photos of children for his employer.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref02.html

Illinois - Paula Ann Stewart disappeared from her Indiana home in 1980 and - until now- her family never knew for certain what happened.

In 1980, there was no DNA technology. When a body was found that could be Stewart's, her family identified the bathing suit top, which was similar to the one she was wearing when she disappeared. A few months ago, Stewart's sister called police and asked them to try again for something more definite.

"In 1980 I was 13 years old and when you're that age, you think you're going to have your sisters forever," said Sherry Vitaniemi, Stewart's sister.

On June 29, 1980, Stewart, 15, disappeared from her Hobart, Ind., home after a day on the beach with her boyfriend. Six months later, a body was found in a cornfield near 104th Avenue and Colorado. There was no way to identify her, so the body was buried in an anonymous grave in a Merriville cemetery.

"Without DNA, we would have had what we had back in 1980-- which was a missing person," said Lt. Leo Finnerty, Hobart Police Dept.

Police reopened the case a few months ago after Vitaniemi called them. The body was exhumed for DNA testing. Those results positively identified Stewart.

Identifying Stewart's body is only half of the mystery. Officials do not know what led to her disappearance. Further DNA testing is underway to try to determine the cause of death. Stephen Rettig was in charge of the case until he retired.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref03.html

California - A prison inmate has been linked through DNA evidence to a series of sexual assaults in July 2001 in which three young women were assaulted and robbed at gunpoint after parking their cars, police say.

Norwood Armstrong, 32, is already serving a 29-year sentence at Corcoran State Prison on an unrelated robbery charge. Authorities say he assaulted the women before he went to prison.

Police say they knew through DNA evidence that the same man had assaulted each of the women. But they did not know who the man was until they discovered him in the state Department of Justice's DNA database.

Two of the assaults occurred at apartment complexes in Sacramento's South Natomas neighborhood, the third at an apartment complex near Sacramento State University.

The DNA data bank program has helped authorities with nearly 4,500 cases statewide since it was formed by a ballot measure that passed in 2004. It requires that DNA be collected from all felons.

Armstrong's arrest record in Sacramento dates back to 1993, according to court records. He received his current prison sentence in November 2005, after pleading no contest to robbery.

With the additional sexual assault, robbery, kidnapping and burglary charges, Armstrong faces the possibility of life in prison.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref04.html

Missouri - DNA evidence shows a Springfield man who served 21 months in jail for kidnapping and rape not only didn't do it, but the woman reporting the incident lied.

The Greene County Prosecutor says the DNA evidence was good enough to set Armand Villasana free in 2000. New tests show the DNA actually belonged to the boyfriend of the woman who claimed Villasena raped her.

Prosecutor Darrell Moore says he cannot prosecute the woman - although he would like to prosecute her - because the statute of limitations has run out in the case. A lawyer for Villasena says a civil suit against the woman is being considered.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref05.html

 

California - Three life terms in prison were ordered Thursday by a Butte County judge for a convicted Plumas County killer, whose DNA linked him to a brutal sexual assault and torture of an elderly Oroville woman in her home eight years ago.

In a written statement to the court, the beating victim, now 72, told Kevin Glen Rikard, 25:

"I guess we've both been given a life sentence of fear. Even though I'm free, I've been a prisoner in my own house" since the night of the vicious attack, the bespectacled, gray-haired woman stated.

The victim's husband was away on a hunting trip in September 1999, when his then 64-year-old wife was awakened at night in her Oroville home by a masked intruder demanding money.

Though she gave him her purse, she said the assailant "tried to break my neck over and over again, biting me so hard that I wore your teeth marks for over a year."

The victim was hospitalized six days with several broken bones, including multiple skull fractures, a broken nose and had one of her fingers nearly bitten off, according to deputy district attorney Brent Redelsperger.

Unable to identify her masked assailant, the crime went unsolved until a little over a year ago, when Rikard was connected to the Oroville woman's attack through DNA tests while he was serving a life term for an unrelated murder in Plumas County.

According to the local prosecutor, Rikard was convicted in 2004 of robbing a man who he had encountered in a bar of $10, and beating him to death with a tree branch.

Philip Heithecker, Rikard's attorney, said in court Thursday his client was so high on drugs when he broke into the Oroville woman's home years earlier that he didn't even remember committing the crime.

Rikard will have to serve 13 years for robbery and burglary before commencing the three life sentences.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref06.html

New York - A Salina man sent to state prison for holding his wife against her will has been linked through DNA to the death of a woman last month, according to his lawyer.

Lawyer George Hildebrandt said today that authorities are seeking samples from Glen W. Shoop Jr., 26, to conduct new DNA tests to verify the link they already have made between him and the killing of Carol M. Nelson.

Nelson, 65, of Buckley Road, Salina, was found dead July 2 in a swampy area near Terminal Road in Salina.

Hildebrandt said the District Attorney's Office has informed him that Shoop's DNA, from the state's inmate database, was matched to DNA in fingernail scrapings taken from Nelson's hands and to DNA from a couple of cigarette butts found near her body.

The prosecution has petitioned state Supreme Court Justice John Brunetti for a search warrant allowing authorities to take a DNA swab from Shoop for further tests, the lawyer said.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Christine Garvey declined comment.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref07.html

Georgia - A man sent to Georgia's death row for raping and strangling several elderly women in the 1970s has been linked by DNA evidence to the 1975 death of a woman in upstate New York, investigators said.

Carlton Gary's DNA matches evidence taken from the Syracuse road where 40-year-old teacher Marion Fisher's body was found raped and strangled, according to reports published Thursday in The Ledger Enquirer of Columbus and The Post-Standard of Syracuse.

Gary was convicted in 1986 of raping and strangling three of the seven women found dead in their Columbus homes in 1977 and 1978. Now 56, Gary remains on Georgia's death row. He was denied a new trial in May.

The cases came to be known in Columbus as the "stocking stranglings" because of the manner by which the women were killed.

Investigators from Syracuse traveled to the prison in Jackson, Ga., earlier this week to question Gary about the June 27, 1975, slaying, Syracuse Police Lt. Ron Rockwood said.

No charges have been filed against Gary in the Syracuse case, Rockwood said. The Onondaga County District Attorney's Office will decide about charges after further tests, he said.

Rockwood said investigators reopened the Fisher case about three years ago, and discovered the evidence still was suitable for DNA testing. The technology was not available at the time of the killing.

Gary's lawyer, John Martin of Atlanta, did not immediately return calls for comment on Thursday.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref08.html

Virginia - Police confirm that DNA from serial-rape suspect Nathan Antonio Washington matches genetic material from two local attacks, but authorities remain mum on developments in five other cases they've long said were committed by the same man.

A Charlottesville grand jury met August 20. Commonwealth's Attorney Dave Chapman refuses to comment about whether Washington was indicted on other charges. "I don't comment on matters that are going before a grand jury," he says.

Virginia's grand juries are secret panels that decide whether to indict without the presence of the accused person or any chance for cross examination or written records.

Washington is scheduled to appear in Charlottesville and Albemarle courts August 23 on charges stemming from a November 2002 rape in the Willoughby subdivision, and an August 2004 attack on Webland Drive off Hydraulic Road.

The arrest warrant obtained by Albemarle police that led to Washington's August 13 arrest is sealed, as is the judge's order sealing the warrant, which is usually a public record.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref09.html

Maryland - A former Pennsylvania man in custody on unrelated charges in Maryland has been charged with sexually assaulting a 22-year-old woman in rural York County.

Police say 22-year-old Paul McGlothlin Junior, formerly of Delta, is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania to face charges including rape, kidnapping and false imprisonment.

Police say McGlothlin flashed his lights to stop a woman's car on Nov. 20 in Fawn Township. Police say McGlothlin then pulled the woman from her car by her hair, drove her to a nearby field and sexually assaulted her.

The woman was taken to York Hospital for treatment. State police say DNA collected by investigators was compared with samples in a police database, and tests indicated a match with McGlothlin.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref10.html

Florida - A 14-year-old charged in the brutal gang rape of a mother and her 12-year-old son confessed his involvement to police after they told him his DNA was detected on a condom recovered at the scene, according to evidence made public on Tuesday.

The DNA of a 16-year-old co-defendant was found on the outside of the same condom, according to more than 100 pages of evidence in the case, known as discovery.

The court records provide a detailed depiction of the horrors alleged to have occurred over the course of three hours June 18 in West Palm Beach's Dunbar Village public housing complex. The case has made international headlines and shined a light on the city's crime-ridden public housing community.

The evidence was made public a day after a judge denied a request to delay the release of certain parts of the investigation. Assistant State Attorney Lanna Belohlavek argued that the ongoing investigation could be jeopardized and additional suspects could avoid arrest if photo lineups and portions of police reports were made public. Circuit Judge Sandra McSorley declined to privately review that evidence, ordering discovery to proceed as usual.

Four males — ages 14, 15, 16 and 18 — have been charged as adults in a 14-count indictment that could send all of them to prison for life. Defense attorneys have argued that the victims failed to identify the same suspects from photo lineups and that they identified fillers — people not involved in the case — as perpetrators. In some instances they identified different people as the same person.

During a six-hour interview with police, [Avion ] Lawson, the first to be charged in the case, confessed his involvement after being told his DNA was inside a condom found in the victim's home. En route to the Juvenile Assessment Center, Lawson called some friends and did not sound remorseful, according to police. His lawyer, Bert Winkler, declined to comment on the evidence.

The next to be charged was Nathan Walker, a 16-year-old who dropped out of the seventh grade after three attempts to pass. Walker's latent fingerprint was found at the scene along with his DNA on the outside of the same condom linked to Lawson, according to the documents.

Jakaris Taylor, 15, was arrested July 12. A resident of Dunbar Village, he said his brother played with the 12-year-old victim, though Taylor denied ever being in the apartment. His mother, Jacqueline Minor, encouraged Taylor to give police a DNA sample. Lab results showed Taylor's latent print inside the home, near Lawson's and Walker's.

On Thursday police charged Tommy Lee Poindexter, 18, with the crimes after physical evidence linked him to the scene.

The suspects are due back in court Oct. 31.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref11.html

Connecticut - A Massachusetts man linked to a 1988 rape in Killingly through DNA has been arraigned on sexual assault and kidnapping charges.

James Ward, 41, of Quincy, Mass., was arraigned Monday in Superior Court. He had been brought to Connecticut Friday.

Ward is accused of entering a home in Killingly Nov. 21, 1988, and sexually assaulting a woman.

Police said evidence gathered at the scene was tested at the state forensic laboratory and entered into the DNA database. In March 2005, Massachusetts authorities matched the DNA samples to Ward and Connecticut state police were able to obtain a warrant for his arrest.

Ward was brought to Connecticut Friday by detectives from the Eastern District Major Crime Squad.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref12.html

Massachusetts - The rape case was so old that the Weymouth detectives who originally investigated it had retired and detectives who still work in the department could hardly remember it.

But then investigators got a break -- nearly 15 years after a man dragged a 17-year-old girl off the street and raped her and weeks before the statute of limitations would have made the crime unprosecutable.

Analysts at the State Police Crime Laboratory in Maynard discovered a match for DNA evidence taken at the time.

On Wednesday, a Norfolk County grand jury indicted Martin D. Lovato, 47, who lived near the victim's home at the time of the crime. He was charged with three counts of aggravated rape, one count of kidnapping, and three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14.

Lovato is serving a life sentence in the Massachusetts Correctional Institution in Shirley after being convicted in January in the 1994 sexual assault of a 16-year-old from Quincy. In February, he was charged with the 1992 rape of a 17-year-old baby sitter in Leicester, based on DNA evidence. Now, investigators hope they can solve three other rapes in the area from 1992 through 1994, said Captain Brian Callahan.

The victim, who now works in the medical field, had visited Weymouth police last year, one of her many inquires into whether there were any new leads in the case.

But, as usual, there was nothing. Records of the 1992 investigation were buried away in a back room.

At the State Police Crime Laboratory, analysts were converting DNA evidence from old crimes into digital files and entering them in a federal database of felons' genetic information.

DNA from the Weymouth case, preserved in a walk-in cooler, matched the DNA of Lovato, according to State Police. Because Lovato had been convicted in 2005 in a separate crime, his DNA was in a database.

Analysts entered data from the Weymouth woman's rape kit last month, said Mary Kate McGilvray, acting director of the State Police Crime Laboratory.

One week later, they found a match and sent a letter to local police, McGilvray said.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref13.html

Ohio - Police say the person who robbed the Springdale TJ Maxx store June 3 was pretty crafty, wearing rubber gloves so no fingerprints would be left.

But it was those gloves – or rather, the DNA left in them – that resulted in Ronneil Rodgers being in court today.

Rodgers, 31, of North Avondale, was arrested Wednesday and charged with robbery. His bond was set today at $175,000.

Police said Rodgers entered the 11661 Princeton Pike store June 3 with another person, took a gym bag from the store and confronted the manager, flashing what was believed to be a gun.

The three went to the area where the store’s safe was kept and, police said, while Rodgers was wrapping the manager in duct tape, his partner was taking money and stuffing it into the gym bag.

After Rodgers and his partner left the store, police say they were picked up by a third person and driven away.

That car was later found, though, and items from the TJ Maxx robbery were found inside.

“One of the items was a rubber glove that was submitted to the coroner’s lab for examination,” court documents note.

“The examination revealed that DNA belonging to Rodgers was present in the glove.”

Police signed that affidavit Tuesday after the results from the DNA tests were returned to them. Rodgers was arrested Wednesday.

Rodgers was convicted in 2003 of trafficking in cocaine.

Many Ohio inmates are required to submit DNA evidence once they are imprisoned. Those DNA samples are kept in a database that can be used to cross-check other DNA samples.

The robbery charge against Rodgers carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref14.html

Missouri - DNA evidence helped police identify a Kansas City man they think raped a 15-year-old girl more than three years ago.

Vincent S. Smith, 38, was charged with second-degree statutory rape and sexual assault, Jackson County Prosecutor Jim Kanatzar announced today.

Charges stem from a January 2003 incident.

According to court documents, the girl, who was out with two friends, was given a drink but couldn’t remember much from the night that followed. Witnesses at the home said Smith followed the girl into the bathroom. They heard her yell, “No, stop, it hurts!” before Smith left the bathroom, zipping up his pants on the way out. The victim was found on the floor with her pants off.

DNA evidence matched that of Smith.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref15.html

California - A convicted felon was found guilty by an El Cajon Superior Court jury yesterday of trying to rape a woman outside a Spring Valley liquor store in December 2005.

Muhammad Hassan was convicted of forcing himself on the 25-year-old woman about 5:40 p.m. Dec. 29, 2005, in the parking lot of Spring Liquor on Sweetwater Springs Boulevard, Deputy District Attorney Renee Palermo said.

The woman was able to fight off Hassan after he pinned her down inside and outside her car.

The case was unsolved for more than a year until DNA testing turned up a match with Hassan in March, Palermo said. Hassan, 25, has previous convictions for receiving stolen property and recklessly evading police.

Judge Laura W. Halgren set a Sept. 12 sentencing hearing, at which Hassan faces up to seven years in prison. 

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref16.html

 

Did You Know?

Topic: New DNA Technology: Sperm Paint

Reported by David Douglas
August 14, 2007

The science of collecting evidence from rape victims is being expanded at the University of Virginia. The technology is called “Sperm Paint.” This revolutionary new technology could help police solve rape cases that previously had to be tossed aside due to a lack of evidence.

"It's a new approach to the identification of sperm in sexual assault evidence," said Dr. John Herr.

Herr adds that developmental biologists at UVA are hoping to solve more sexual assault cases.

"It will more rapidly allow a forensic practitioner to analyze sexual assault evidence, and have the sperm just jump out of them as a fluorescent image out of a dark background,” he said.

Even for an expert with detailed images, it could take hours, and a lot of luck to find one sperm prosecutors can count on in court. But blue light makes the process easier.

"Right now, when the technician is looking at a sample from a rape kit, they need to be able to find an intact sperm, so even if they can find a head and a tail right next to each other, it doesn't count,” said Liz Alfson, a second year medical student at UVA.

That's because sperm cells break apart quickly, and without the intact cell, before now there's been no way to prove a smaller part came from the whole.

"With sperm paint, what we could do, is be able to say that that tail, all by itself counts, because we know that protein by itself, doesn't exist anywhere else in the body, said Alfson."

What's even better is that since sperm breaks down over time, many cases are lost because victims are too traumatized to go the hospital only hours after an attack.

But now, even days later, sperm can be definitively identified.

Source: http://www.dnalabsinternational.com/email_newsletter/vol_51_aug_07/vol51_ref17.html

Events and conferences for 2007 that may of interest to you include:

18th International Symposium on Human Identification - October 1-4, 2007

Renaissance Hollywood Hotel - Hollywood, California

Web site: www.promega.com/geneticsymp18/ 

 

The DNA Informant is a free bi-weekly email newsletter, published by DNA Labs International.

 

DNA Labs International is a private, ISO 17025 Accredited, Forensic Serology and DNA Identity Testing Laboratory, founded in 2004 by a Board Certified Fellow in Molecular Biology with over two decades of experience in Forensic Serology and DNA Analysis in United States Crime Labs.  Our primary mission is to help our clients identify criminals within their jurisdiction by providing timely, accurate and cost effective DNA testing results.  To do this we created an organization based on industry best practices from over 20 State Crime Labs around the United States.  We are located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, just minutes from the Fort Lauderdale airport.

 

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