Maine convicted killer loses bid for DNA tests

By DAVID SHARP/Associated Press/February 18, 2014

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A divided state supreme court on Tuesday rejected a request to order additional DNA tests on behalf of a convicted killer who claims they could show someone else shot to death his ex-girlfriend and a toddler she was baby-sitting.

Jeffrey Cookson wanted the tests done on clothes worn by another man, David Vantol, who claimed responsibility for the killings but later recanted.

In a 5-1 decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld a judges ruling that Cookson failed to show that others hadnt had control of the items or tampered with them.

Writing for the majority, Justice Ellen Gorman said items in question didnt match exactly with what Vantol described and that the items could not be accounted for during a two-year period before they were obtained from a location owned by Cooks brother.

The point of establishing a chain of custody is to demonstrate that the evidence presented for testing is evidence that is germane to the case, and that it has not been tampered with, she wrote.

But Justice Joseph Jabar came to a contrary conclusion. In dissenting opinion, he said that the law requires some evidence of chain of custody but didnt require Cookson to eliminate every possibility of tampering.

He wrote that DNA evidence has been used both to convict and exonerate defendants.

It is incumbent on the state, in its judicial, investigative, and prosecutorial capacities, to use this unparalleled evidence where it is available, he wrote.

Cookson, who is serving two life sentences, was convicted in 2001 for the killings of Mindy Gould, 20, and 21-month-old Treven Cunningham, both of whom were shot in the back of the head while they were lying face down in a bedroom in Dexter.

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Maine convicted killer loses bid for DNA tests