DNA helps troopers solve old burglaries

By KYLE HOPKINS

PALMER -- An expanded state DNA database and a burglary suspect's taste for soda pop helped state troopers identify one man they say committed a string of Valley burglaries in 2002 and 2003.

Saliva from cola bottles and soda cans, plus the fragment of a bloody glove, linked 28-year-old Shane Martin of Wasilla to several local break-ins, according to affidavits and other court records. In a region where property crimes are a common complaint among businesses, homeowners and builders, Martin is accused of stealing tens of thousands of dollars in goods.

Troopers say he took tools, cars, electronics and handguns. In one case, a Glock pistol stolen from a Valley general contractor surfaced a year later in Anchorage, where police linked it to a homicide.

A grand jury indicted Martin for five break-ins in August. The indictment also names a second defendant, 24-year-old Anthony Hanson, in one of the crimes. Other burglaries from the time period are still being investigated.

Hanson is on the loose, with warrants in Anchorage and Palmer, but Martin is jailed in Anchorage. Police there arrested him when the neighbor of an auto shop made a surprising discovery early one morning in April.

The story of how authorities pinned so many Valley burglaries on Martin starts three years ago, when troopers in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough fielded reports of a baffling series of thefts.

"Basically, we were getting our butt kicked by these burglaries," said trooper Sgt. Dallas Massie.

On the morning of Oct. 29, 2002, troopers investigated a break-in at Pro Auto Service on the outskirts of Wasilla. Thieves had taken a 1975 Chevrolet Corvette and a Mazda pickup, along with more than $40,000 in automotive equipment, a generator and tools.

"All we got back were (the) cars," said shop owner Robert Erdman. He said the business closed for about two weeks after the burglary. Even after insurance payments, the burglars knocked Erdman for about $30,000, he said.

The thieves also snatched 24 plastic bottles of Pepsi products, trooper investigator Curtis Vik wrote in an affidavit, and investigators found an empty bottle of Mountain Dew in the Corvette, abandoned near Houston.

The bottle went to the state crime lab in Anchorage, the first step in a process of collecting potential DNA evidence.

Alaska expanded a law in 2003 to require people convicted of felonies, or any crime against a person, to submit a DNA sample in the form of a cheek swab.

Martin and Hanson would eventually end up in a database that checks crime scene evidence against a list of about 10,000 offenders. But investigators had little of that information at their fingertips three years ago. That would change.

A burglary at a business plaza along the Palmer-Wasilla Highway soon followed the auto shop break-in. The culprit or culprits again left something behind -- the bloodstained fragment of a blue latex glove.

Days later, a woman reported yet another burglary along the same stretch of highway at the office of general contractor Steve Norton Enterprises. Someone had entered a window, rummaged through drawers and took a laptop computer, a tool kit and other items, including a Glock 27 semi-automatic pistol and a .44-caliber Magnum revolver, court records indicate.

Troopers sent an empty root beer can found at the site to the state crime lab along with a Pepsi can and water bottles discovered at the scene of a Big Lake smash-and-grab.

Troopers stepped up patrols but the break-ins kept coming. At 1:10 a.m. Jan. 21, 2003, a woman reported to troopers that she and her husband returned from a vacation to find their Wasilla home ransacked.

A 2001 Toyota Camry was gone. Drawers and dressers hung open, DVDs and CDs were missing, according to a troopers affidavit, but the burglars left an Otter Pop wrapper and soda cans behind.

That same night, Martin's luck ran out. At a home off Trunk Road, Massie said, an off-duty Anchorage cop saw what looked like a break-in. Troopers arrived at the house and, using infrared radar, found Martin and Hanson hiding under a dead tree, an affidavit states.

The men said their pickup was stuck -- they had simply been looking for a snow shovel at the empty home. Authorities arrested Martin and Hanson, who in that case eventually pleaded burglary charges down to criminal trespassing.

In March 2003, troopers heard from the crime lab. Two separate DNA profiles were found on the cola cans and Otter Pop wrapper from the Jan. 21 Wasilla break-in. Now investigators had evidence to connect someone to the crime but couldn't prove to whom the DNA belonged.

Later that year, one of the guns stolen from Steve Norton Enterprises was discovered in Anchorage in the same Russian Jack neighborhood as the shooting death of a father of four days earlier. A suspect, 33-year-old Derrick Wren, was charged with the killing and the gun is now evidence, said Anchorage Police Department spokesman Lt. Paul Honeman.

Vik said burglaries change lives in more ways than one. Victims may cancel vacations or be afraid to leave their home alone. Troopers suggest businesses and homeowners catalogue their belongings and record serial numbers, as well as report any thefts so contraband can later be returned.

A little more than a year ago, the state received an infusion of federal money to help pay for processing more DNA evidence, said Chris Beheim, the state's forensic lab supervisor. So far this year, the database has made over 90 connections between criminals and crime scene evidence.

On April 20, Beheim reported a breakthrough to Palmer troopers. The crime lab had connected many of the old Valley burglaries to a single suspect: Shane Martin.

Affidavits say it was Martin's DNA found on the Mountain Dew bottle in the stolen Corvette, on the root beer can found at a Palmer-Wasilla Highway burglary and on a Pepsi can discovered at the Big Lake home.

The DNA results also placed Hanson at the scene of one of the home break-ins. Troopers could now make arrests and, in Martin's case, they didn't have to wait long.

At about 5 a.m. April 26 in Anchorage, a neighbor called police and reported hearing glass breaking at Prestige Auto Works. The caller looked outside and saw a truck parked next to the auto shop with a man running between the vehicle and the business, according to an indictment. Police would later identify the two men as Martin and a new accomplice, 21-year-old Stephen Mohler. The neighbor started to write down the license plate numbers when it dawned on him -- the burglars had taken his truck.

Anchorage police arrived and gave chase until the suspects veered into trees. The men bailed out, and it took a police dog to catch Martin, court records show.

Police accused Martin and Mohler of taking $20,000 worth of goods and equipment from Prestige Auto. Less than two weeks later, an Anchorage grand jury indicted Martin on burglary and evasion charges, among others, for the Anchorage break-in. He's still in jail.

Hanson, however, is nowhere to be found. He was arrested in October and accused of attempted burglary. He made bail, but he failed to appear for a November pretrial conference. Authorities are looking for him in connection with the Anchorage and Valley thefts.

Except for the stolen vehicles, most of the property Hanson and Martin are accused of taking was never found.