DNA Evidence Key to Both Freedom and Prison in Decades-Old Murder Cases

The power of DNA evidence was on display this week in courtrooms on opposite sides of the country, where the fates of three defendants tied to grisly crimes committed decades ago took remarkable turns.

A Los Angeles County jury on Tuesday found a 74-year-old, wheelchair-bound drifter and suspected serial killer guilty of strangling three women to death in the 1980s after DNA evidence led to a break in the cold-case murders.

Reports Reuters:

A Los Angeles County Superior Court jury deliberated just two hours before finding Samuel Little, 74, guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of all three women, who prosecutors described as having been made easy targets by their involvement in drugs and prostitution.

Prosecutors said Little was tied by DNA matches to the July 1987 murder of Carol Alford, 41, as well as to the August and September 1989 slayings of Audrey Nelson, 35, and Guadalupe Apodaca, 46.

All three were beaten and then strangled to death, and Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said Little was a suspect in several similar murders in Florida and elsewhere during the same period of time.

Mr. Little, who was acquitted by a jury of a Florida slaying three decades ago, was connected to the L.A. killings after DNA evidence found at the crime scenes was matched with his DNA profile, obtained from an unrelated drug arrest in Kentucky in 2012, according to Reuters.

A prosecutor at the trial said Mr. Little could be responsible for at least 40 killings since 1980, according to AP, which reported that authorities in California, Florida, Kentucky, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, Mississippi and Ohio are investigating possible links.

DNA evidence, meanwhile, proved to be the key to freedom for two prison inmates In North Carolina.

On Tuesday, a North Carolina judge threw out the convictions of half-brothers Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, who had spent more than 30 years behind bars for the gang-rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl.

Go here to read the rest:
DNA Evidence Key to Both Freedom and Prison in Decades-Old Murder Cases