ST. LOUIS A jailhouse scuffle last year left Jimmy Love-El with some bumps, some bruises and a mistrial in the double homicide case against him.

The fight may have been his lucky break.

A circuit court judge called off the trial on its third day on concerns that injuries from the fight, involving a friend of one of the victims, could prejudice the jury.

In the time since, DNA evidence has surfaced that Love-El's attorneys say support his defense that someone else shot two men Jan. 11, 2009, in a Schnucks parking lot during a drug deal gone bad.

The DNA hit matching a convicted drug offender to a cup found in the car where the two men were killed is contentious for another reason. A St. Louis police detective didn't disclose the DNA result for four months after he was notified of it, leaving the defense to hear of the evidence just four days before the retrial. As a result, that trial has been pushed back. Love-El remains in jail, waiting to see how the DNA test will affect his case.

The episode has prompted a mea culpa from police, with a promise of better procedures going forward to inform defendants of evidence that could help them.

THE CRIME

Prosecutors argued in the interrupted trial in June 2011 that Love-El killed Dewon Curry and Archie White because he was a drug user who needed a fix.

Curry, 23, and White, 22, were parked outside the Schnucks store in the 3400 block of Union Boulevard when Love-El allegedly pulled in around 6:30 p.m. They wanted $1,200 for an ounce of crack cocaine, but Love-El found a way to get it for free, prosecutors said.

They alleged that he climbed into the back seat of the victims' Mercury Marquis, pulled out a gun and shot each man in the head. He took their cellphones and drugs but accidentally left behind a brown glove that testing would show contained his DNA, officials said.

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After mistrial, DNA factors into double-murder case