Blood from a cut on the finger during a burglary, sweat or skin cells left on clothing from a robbery and semen from a sexual assault can be used to solve crimes because of DNA found in each evidence sample.
An armed man walked into a Pizza Hut on Cypress Street in Rogers just before midnight Nov. 17, 2013. The man waved a gun at an employee and demanded she "give him all her money," according to police records. The woman stuffed about $500 in a hot wings bag and handed it to him. She told police he was wearing a hat pulled low with eye holes cut in it.
Juli’s Law
Arkansas law allows collection of a DNA sample from every person arrested for certain offenses including capital murder, murder in the first degree, kidnapping, rape, sexual assault in the first degree and sexual assualt in the second degree. The Arkansas law was named “Juli’s Law” in 2009 for Juli Busken, a 21-year-old University of Oklahoma student from Benton who was killed in 1996. A DNA match solved her case.
Source: Staff Report
A police dog was unable to pick up a trail that night. A man at a business on South Eighth Street called police the next day. A hat and gloves crumpled together were in the Dumpster out back. Police showed photos of the olive-colored hat to the woman who was robbed and she recognized it. The hat was bagged as evidence and sent to the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory.
Rogers police made an arrest in January in the case based on DNA evidence. Joseph Thomas Lacefield, 51, of Rogers was arrested in connection with armed robbery. Lacefield was arrested a month after he supplied a DNA sample to police.
Before Lacefield's arrest police checked DNA of four other people against that found on the hat and gloves.
Lacefield had been charged with other robberies in the area. Bentonville police arrested him in May 2014 in connection with robberies in Bentonville, Rogers and Springdale where a man wore a fake beard and a raincoat. Surveillance footage from the Springdale robbery linked him to a car at the Bentonville robbery. Lacefield was being held in the Benton County Jail on a $150,000 bond when he was arrested in connection with the Pizza Hut case. His bond is now set at $225,000.
Lacefield is being held in connection with three counts of robbery, one felony count of aggravated robbery, two misdemeanor counts of theft of property and one count of tampering.
DNA isn't the answer to every question, said Kermit Channell, executive director of the Arkansas State Crime Laboratory.
"Just because you don't have DNA doesn't mean you don't have a case," he said.
There is an aura of mystery about DNA profiling lent to it by television programs, but real life is more straightforward. If biological evidence is found at the crime scene, it is submitted for DNA analysis.
Hair, fibers, paint and glass can all be clues that solve a case, Channell said. A ski mask makes an easy sample for DNA because of its constant contact with the head, he said.
DNA also can rule people out, said Craig Stout, public information officer for the Fayetteville Police Department. It can prove useful in a break-in with no suspects. DNA analysis is more often used in cases of murder or rape than burglary.
Officers talk about the "CSI effect" where people believe every case has complex science completed in short order.
"CSI has taught everyone we'll have it solved in an hour and that includes commercials," Stout said.
Real life isn't like television, Channell said.
Juries often expect DNA evidence because of television, said Nathan Smith, Benton County prosecutor.
"If you watch TV they have it in every case," Smith said.
The presence of skin cells has been the rarest in the cases he's seen, Smith said.
"The normal thing is not to find DNA," he said.
Most cases aren't reported soon enough. A rape victim may shower and unknowingly wash away evidence. DNA is more commonly found in serious crimes because it's often undisturbed in homicides, he said.
Still, without the right circumstances the evidence can be meaningless. An adult rape case may center on whether the sex was consensual, not on whether it happened, Smith said.
Not every case has a confession either, Smith said, but pieces of evidence are what builds a case.
The first question people often ask when arrested for a crime is if they can take a lie detector test, said Springdale Detective Mark McCann. They often volunteer DNA to prove their innocence. Lie detector tests are uncommon because they're not admissible in court, McCann said. Fingerprints and video surveillance are used far more often than a DNA sample. A police department might get a fingerprint report back from the state lab in a week. DNA samples are prioritized based on the severity of the crime. Burglary isn't high on the list.
The state lab processes between 800 to 900 DNA samples a month, Channell said. Those arrested for violent crimes such as murder, rape or kidnapping are required to provide a DNA sample when arrested and convicted felons in Arkansas provide a DNA sample as they enter the state prison system. It's the only lab for the state.
It takes about 30 to 40 days to generate a DNA profile, Channell said. Some of that could be a backlog of other cases, but some of it comes down to the science.
Physical evidence sent by police has to be inspected, documented and stains tested to see if they are blood stains or chocolate ice cream, he said.
"You can't just look at something and say, 'Well, I think that's blood,'" he said.
Cells may have to be removed from fabric. In a sexual assault case there may be a chemical test for sperm.
Once the other tests are finished an analyst measures the amount of DNA. They may have to duplicate or "amplify" cells before they can run an analysis. Once a report is generated a second person corroborates the information.
The goal is accuracy, Channell said.
"We don't want to sacrifice quality just to be fast," he said. "That's a risk the victims don't want us to take."
Samples from crime scenes are checked against potential suspects. Sometimes that becomes a surprise notice for police.
McCann once worked a smash-and-grab case where the man cut himself on the broken glass and left blood at the crime scene. A year later McCann got a letter from the state crime lab. His suspect had submitted DNA the day before the Springdale burglary. When McCann talked to the suspect the man wondered why it had taken so long for police to arrest him. He knew he was caught when he saw the blood during the burglary.
"It's kind of like nature's little serial number," McCann said.
The Rogers Police Department uses DNA as evidence when it can, said Keith Foster, public information officer.
It's like fingerprints in that detectives will try to match a DNA profile with a person or vice-versa. However, its use is limited by cases that can match both DNA from a crime scene and DNA from a suspect.
The department has a rape cold case where a suspect who appeared to be "the guy" was cleared by DNA. Detectives have found another suspect, but that man hasn't yet provided a DNA sample.
"DNA is a powerful tool, but it is not the magic solution to clearing every case," Foster said.
DNA has its limitations, McCann said. Arkansas has strict guidelines on what can be collected. The number of fingerprints to search against is much larger than the number of DNA profiles.
"It's a nice tool, but it's not our number one tool," he said.
NW News on 02/08/2015