Staff Writer
NEW BOSTON — A sweatshirt thought to hold crucial evidence in a 20-plus-year-old murder case served to spur forensic scientists to retest evidence they had all along.
The results gave investigators the names of two cousins from Tyler — two men who were on the original suspect list in 1983.
Lorna Beasley, a Texas Department of Public Safety DNA Lab section supervisor in Garland, said when former FBI Agent George Kieny brought her a sweatshirt in 2001, it got her and her boss Manuel Valadez thinking about evidence they had had in their possession since the Kentucky Fried Chicken murders occurred in Kilgore Sept. 23, 1983. The sweatshirt did not contain evidence like believed, but it caused the scientists to ask the question — what if we hold the key?
“We started with what we had in the lab,” she said. “I decided to do it after we received the sweatshirt, and I began testing some of the evidence we had in storage.”
Beasley said she was able to obtain a complete DNA profile from blood splattered on a box found in the KFC restaurant. She also explained in 1983, the only testing available to forensic scientists on blood was blood typing, which could only distinguish between blood types.
When DNA testing became available, the variables increased. Beasley testified only identical twins have the same DNA. Everybody else has his or her own unique DNA. There are similarities between family members, but there are many more differences.
Beasley’s testimony was another round for the prosecution team led by Texas Attorney General Prosecutor Lisa Tanner.
Beasley told the jury she was surprised when CODIS (Combined DNA Indexing System, a national DNA data base) came up with a match. She said the match she received was the DNA profile of Darnell Hartsfield in October of 2001.
A few months later, Beasley would again receive information of a match. This time on a bloody napkin found in the restaurant. The DNA profile said it could be one person. That person was Romeo Pinkerton.
Beasley testified that just in the African American community, the chances of someone else having that same DNA profile are 1 in 924.2 trillion and since there are only 6.5 billion people on the planet, the DNA was his.
Tanner asked, “What is your opinion as regards to that stain?”
Beasley testified, “It came from Romeo Pinkerton.”
The defense team of Jeff Haas and David Griffith objected to Beasley’s testimony and the statistical numbers, but State District Judge Clay Gossett allowed the testimony.
Griffith questioned Beasley about crime labs and problems with contamination. He mentioned the Houston Crime Lab, which has been the focus of multiple investigations and was the reason some convictions have recently been overturned.
However, Beasley explained that the testing done was done in the DPS lab on items they had in their possession since 1983.
Gossett recessed the jury about 4 p.m. Monday due to a witness problem the state and defense team had to address.
The state had two witnesses from out of state that were to testify live via closed circuit television in the court room, but due to technical difficulties at the Bowie County Courthouse, those plans were changed.
Testimony in the case is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
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