Post by Anja on Jun 22, 2006 17:59:48 GMT -5
HPD MAKES ARREST IN ICONIC DNA CASE----New suspect's DNA match in '98 rape
further clears name of wrongly convicted man
Houston police have arrested a man in a 1998 rape for which an innocent
teenager served more than four years in prison, officials announced
Wednesday, bringing police closer to resolving a case that has become a
symbol of their crime lab's incompetence.
Police arrested Donnie Lamon Young, 24, last week after a state database
of DNA samples matched his profile to evidence from the rape of a Houston
woman who was taken at gunpoint from her apartment complex, raped by two
men and dumped in a field.
The person convicted in the case, Josiah Sutton, was exonerated after new
DNA tests discredited analyses performed by the Houston Police Department
crime lab that helped secure his conviction. His family was hopeful that
the arrest would bring closure to his ordeal.
"My son had been pardoned," Sutton's mother, Carol Batie, said, "but it
still weighed on my heart that no one had been arrested and that some
people would not believe in Josiah's innocence until someone was. Now,
justice can be done for the victim, and we can really close the book and
say he did not do it."
Five days after the Oct. 25, 1998, attack, the victim identified
16-year-old Sutton, whom she saw walking near her apartment, as one of her
attackers. Although he maintained his innocence, Sutton was convicted and
sentenced to 25 years in prison, largely on the testimony from HPD
crime-lab analysts who told jurors Sutton's DNA was an "exact match" for
evidence from the crime.
DNA profiles
The case against the former high school football star and eldest of five
children began to unravel 3 years later after an independent audit exposed
widespread problems at the HPD crime lab, including lax protocols,
unqualified analysts and inadequate facilities.
New tests were ordered in hundreds of cases with DNA evidence, including
Sutton's. Private labs found that HPD analysts were wrong to include
Sutton as a suspect in the case. He was released from prison and later
pardoned and is receiving more than $118,000 in reparations from the
state. He still struggles to get his life back on track, his mother said,
as he fruitlessly looks for work and tries to manage life as an adult.
While performing the new tests on evidence from the 1998 rape, private
labs identified the complete DNA profile of an unknown male and a partial
profile of a second suspect. The complete profile was entered into the
Texas Department of Public Safety's database in June 2003.
Although Sutton had been cleared and a profile identified, police had no
leads and were not actively working the case, according to HPD officials
and prosecutors.
"That is one of the travesties of all of this," said Assistant District
Attorney John Jordan, who will prosecute the case against Young. "There
was somebody out there."
'We're very certain'
Young's DNA profile entered the state database sometime in 2005, during a
stint in prison for possession of a controlled substance. State law
dictates that felons serving time in prison and registered sex offenders
submit DNA samples.
On May 8, DPS matched Young's profile to evidence from the 1998 rape and
alerted HPD.
Houston police secured a search warrant and obtained a fresh DNA sample
from Young, said HPD Assistant Chief Vicki King, who added that Young was
identified as "a possible hit in this case."
On June 9, detectives were notified that Young's DNA sample taken after
the search warrant matched the evidence found on the victim's clothing. He
was arrested five days later and charged with aggravated sexual assault,
police said.
Investigators are confident that Young is 1 of 2 people who took part in
the attack.
"Scientific evidence has proven that Donnie Young is half of the formula
of this crime. We're very certain of that," said Detective K.L. McMurtry,
with HPD's sex-crimes unit.
Young is being held at the Harris County Jail with bail set at $150,000.
"His only response during our entire contact with him, for the most part,
was he doesn't recall" any involvement, McMurtry said.
The woman has not identified Young as one of the men who assaulted her,
police said.
"She was shown a live line-up but was unable, due to the length of time,
to make an identification of this man," King said.
Young's arrest has prompted police to search for the second attacker, who
they think goes by a name pronounced "Dee-kee," and for two men whom the
woman said she saw talking to her attackers.
"What we are doing is looking forward," King said. "There's nothing that
we can do about what occurred in the past. I believe for the Sutton
family, it's not closed I'm sure they still have issues."
Reticent Rosenthal
Sutton's mother said her biggest hope is that those who have not
acknowledged her son's innocence, such as District Attorney Chuck
Rosenthal, now will.
"It is important to me that it be said, with no reservations, that Josiah
did not do this," she said. "If they have arrested someone who did, there
should be no question."
Rosenthal, who has said he is unable to call Sutton innocent because the
victim has been steadfast in her identification of him, said Wednesday
that he did not yet have enough information on the case against Young.
"I still don't know enough to know whether she was mistaken or not," he
said. "I intend to look into it, but if he (Sutton) is innocent, I will be
the first to say he is. But I can't say that yet."
(source: Houston Chronicle)
*****************************
further clears name of wrongly convicted man
Houston police have arrested a man in a 1998 rape for which an innocent
teenager served more than four years in prison, officials announced
Wednesday, bringing police closer to resolving a case that has become a
symbol of their crime lab's incompetence.
Police arrested Donnie Lamon Young, 24, last week after a state database
of DNA samples matched his profile to evidence from the rape of a Houston
woman who was taken at gunpoint from her apartment complex, raped by two
men and dumped in a field.
The person convicted in the case, Josiah Sutton, was exonerated after new
DNA tests discredited analyses performed by the Houston Police Department
crime lab that helped secure his conviction. His family was hopeful that
the arrest would bring closure to his ordeal.
"My son had been pardoned," Sutton's mother, Carol Batie, said, "but it
still weighed on my heart that no one had been arrested and that some
people would not believe in Josiah's innocence until someone was. Now,
justice can be done for the victim, and we can really close the book and
say he did not do it."
Five days after the Oct. 25, 1998, attack, the victim identified
16-year-old Sutton, whom she saw walking near her apartment, as one of her
attackers. Although he maintained his innocence, Sutton was convicted and
sentenced to 25 years in prison, largely on the testimony from HPD
crime-lab analysts who told jurors Sutton's DNA was an "exact match" for
evidence from the crime.
DNA profiles
The case against the former high school football star and eldest of five
children began to unravel 3 years later after an independent audit exposed
widespread problems at the HPD crime lab, including lax protocols,
unqualified analysts and inadequate facilities.
New tests were ordered in hundreds of cases with DNA evidence, including
Sutton's. Private labs found that HPD analysts were wrong to include
Sutton as a suspect in the case. He was released from prison and later
pardoned and is receiving more than $118,000 in reparations from the
state. He still struggles to get his life back on track, his mother said,
as he fruitlessly looks for work and tries to manage life as an adult.
While performing the new tests on evidence from the 1998 rape, private
labs identified the complete DNA profile of an unknown male and a partial
profile of a second suspect. The complete profile was entered into the
Texas Department of Public Safety's database in June 2003.
Although Sutton had been cleared and a profile identified, police had no
leads and were not actively working the case, according to HPD officials
and prosecutors.
"That is one of the travesties of all of this," said Assistant District
Attorney John Jordan, who will prosecute the case against Young. "There
was somebody out there."
'We're very certain'
Young's DNA profile entered the state database sometime in 2005, during a
stint in prison for possession of a controlled substance. State law
dictates that felons serving time in prison and registered sex offenders
submit DNA samples.
On May 8, DPS matched Young's profile to evidence from the 1998 rape and
alerted HPD.
Houston police secured a search warrant and obtained a fresh DNA sample
from Young, said HPD Assistant Chief Vicki King, who added that Young was
identified as "a possible hit in this case."
On June 9, detectives were notified that Young's DNA sample taken after
the search warrant matched the evidence found on the victim's clothing. He
was arrested five days later and charged with aggravated sexual assault,
police said.
Investigators are confident that Young is 1 of 2 people who took part in
the attack.
"Scientific evidence has proven that Donnie Young is half of the formula
of this crime. We're very certain of that," said Detective K.L. McMurtry,
with HPD's sex-crimes unit.
Young is being held at the Harris County Jail with bail set at $150,000.
"His only response during our entire contact with him, for the most part,
was he doesn't recall" any involvement, McMurtry said.
The woman has not identified Young as one of the men who assaulted her,
police said.
"She was shown a live line-up but was unable, due to the length of time,
to make an identification of this man," King said.
Young's arrest has prompted police to search for the second attacker, who
they think goes by a name pronounced "Dee-kee," and for two men whom the
woman said she saw talking to her attackers.
"What we are doing is looking forward," King said. "There's nothing that
we can do about what occurred in the past. I believe for the Sutton
family, it's not closed I'm sure they still have issues."
Reticent Rosenthal
Sutton's mother said her biggest hope is that those who have not
acknowledged her son's innocence, such as District Attorney Chuck
Rosenthal, now will.
"It is important to me that it be said, with no reservations, that Josiah
did not do this," she said. "If they have arrested someone who did, there
should be no question."
Rosenthal, who has said he is unable to call Sutton innocent because the
victim has been steadfast in her identification of him, said Wednesday
that he did not yet have enough information on the case against Young.
"I still don't know enough to know whether she was mistaken or not," he
said. "I intend to look into it, but if he (Sutton) is innocent, I will be
the first to say he is. But I can't say that yet."
(source: Houston Chronicle)
*****************************