DNA taken from prison inmate in cold case homicide

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Using a search warrant Santa Fe detectives obtained a DNA sample from a inmate in the New Mexico State Penitentiary to be used to confirm a previous DNA match from blood on a knife handle from a fatal stabbing in Santa Fe in 2000.

The search warrant was served on Joe G. Rivera, 67, after a 2012 review of the stabbing from 14 years ago using new touch DNA technology, court documents said.

According to an affidavit for the search warrant filed April 10 in 1st Judicial District Court in Santa Fe: Late on the night of Dec. 22, 2000, officers were called to Agua Fria Street and St. Francis Drive after a report of a man on the ground. The man, later identified as Librado Alfonso Leyba Jr., was taken to a local hospital where he later died from a stab in the lower chest.

The next day officers recovered a knife about 50 yards from where Leyba was found. In a 2012 review, a touch DNA sample from the knife handle was analyzed by the New Mexico Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory and in October of 2012 it was determined the sample matched the DNA profile of Rivera, whose whereabouts were not known until July of 2013.

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DNA taken from prison inmate in cold case homicide