DNA tests completed in 2000 Valley Center murder case; wife had hoped they would exonerate her – The San Diego Union-Tribune

A little more than a year ago, a San Diego judge granted a womans request to have evidence from her high-profile murder case tested for DNA, a move the defense hoped would point to someone else as the killer.

The woman was Jane Dorotik, who was convicted in 2001of first-degree murder in the slaying of her husband, Robert. He was strangled at the couples Valley Center home.

Jane Dorotik, now 70, is serving a sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

According to the District Attorneys Office, the items in question a rope used to strangle the husband and fingernail clippings or scrapings from his body were tested by the San Diego County Sheriffs Department Crime Lablate last year.

The results of those tests revealed that DNA found on those items belonged to the victim. Its unclear whether any other contributors were identified.

Whats also unclear is whether this means Dorotiks quest for exoneration has come to an end. She is now represented by attorneys from Loyola Law Schools Project for the Innocent, which is based in Los Angeles.

Reached by phone last week, the attorneys declined to confirm the results of the DNA tests or to discuss the status of Dorotiks case.

No further court hearings have been scheduled in San Diego Superior Court.

Nothing has been filedsince the (DNA) results have come back, said Deputy District Attorney Jill Lindberg, the prosecutor most recently assigned to the case. She said she did not know whether any hearings would be scheduled in the near future.

At the time of the killing, Dorotik wasa high-level executive for a mental health services company. She also raised and trained horses. She and her husband had three adult children.

Dorotik reported her husband missing the evening of Feb. 13, 2000. The last time she saw him, she told authorities, was earlier that daywhen he was getting ready to go jogging.

Robert Dorotiks body was found early the next day, Valentines Day, in a wooded area about two miles from the ranch where the family lived. The body, dressed in running clothes,had been strangled and beaten, authorities said.He was 55.

Jane Dorotikwas arrested a few days later. Detectives found a bloodstained mattress and specks of his blood on the floor, walls and ceiling of the master bedroom, which they said indicated her husband was killed in the house.

After examining the clothing on the body, investigators determined he was likely dressed in the running clothes after he was killed, according to court documents. There were bloodtransfer stains but no spatter stains on his T-shirt. No blood was found on his sweatpants or on his shoes.

Prosecutors relied heavily on circumstantial evidence to provetheir case.Dorotik and her husband were home alone when he was most likely killed. There had also been some discord between the husband and wife, which pointed to a possible motive.

Deputy District Attorney Bonnie Howard-Regan argued to the jury in North Countythat Dorotik killed her husband because she was afraid of losing part of her $118,000 annual salary in a divorce. Robert Dorotik had quit his job as an aerospace engineer to start a business making horse jumps, but it wasnt going well.

Dorotik maintained throughout the trial and afterward that she was innocent, but she didnt know who the real killer was.

San Diego Superior Court Judge Joan Weber, who presided over the trial, has said repeatedly that the most incriminating piece of evidence was Jane Dorotiks bloody thumbprint on a syringe filled with animal tranquilizer that was found in a bathroom next to the master bedroom.

Itwas also Weberwho in November 2015 granted a request filed on Dorotiks behalf to allow post-convictionDNA testing of the rope and fingernail scrapings. Neither of those items had been tested previously.

The judge directed lawyers on both sides of the case to try to agree on which lab wouldperform the tests. But that might have been a task easier said than done.

Last April, Weber ordered the Sheriffs Crime Lab to do the testing, but a month later Dorotik, who by then was representing herself, asked the judge to order the lab to test only half the evidence so the rest could be saved for future testing.

Thatrequest was denied.

Later, after Loyolas Project for the Innocent took over the case, the attorneys clarified her request, saying Dorotik did not want the Sheriffs Crime Lab the same one that conducted the testson all of the evidence used to convict her to be the only lab to test the rope and fingernail evidence.

They said Dorotik was concerned about confirmation bias.

What the Defendant would actually like to request is not that half the sample be shelved for later testing but that an independent lab (unrelated to the criminal investigation of her case and one that is not directly affiliated with law enforcement) conduct independent testing on these important pieces of evidence right away, the attorneys wrote in court documents.

Weber denied the defense motion and confirmed in August that the Sheriffs Crime Lab would do the DNA analysis.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @danalittlefield

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DNA tests completed in 2000 Valley Center murder case; wife had hoped they would exonerate her - The San Diego Union-Tribune