DNA evidence may clear Honduran man sentenced to death in Florida

By Barbara Liston

SANFORD (Reuters) - Lawyers seeking to overturn the murder conviction of a Honduran man who has been on Florida's death row since 2006 presented new DNA and blood stain evidence in a Florida court on Tuesday.

Clemente Aguirre-Jarquin, 33, was convicted in the 2004 murders of his neighbors at a Seminole County trailer park. Cheryl Williams, 47, was stabbed 129 times, and her mother, Carol Bareis, 69, was stabbed twice.

Blood stain expert Barie Goetz testified Tuesday that the killer would have been splattered with blood spurting from 131 stab wounds from a 10-inch knife at close range. Goetz said the blood found on the thigh area of Aguirre's shorts were contact stains and matched Aguirre's claim that he found the bodies and rolled them over to check for a pulse.

"The wearer of those shorts did not inflict the injuries to Cheryl Williams," said Goetz, a Pennsylvania-based forensic consultant. Goetz also testified that Aguirre's bloody shoe prints at the scene indicated careful walking around the bodies.

The Innocence Project, which is dedicated to using DNA testing to exonerate those who are wrongly convicted, and Aguirre's appellate legal team also obtained DNA analysis of some of the 150 blood stains photographed and swabbed at the crime scene but never tested.

NEW DNA EVIDENCE

The new DNA analysis concluded that eight blood stains at the crime scene matched Samantha Williams, the daughter and granddaughter of the victims, and none matched Aguirre, according to a report by the Innocence Project.

Samantha Williams had a history of mental illness, and during two mental breakdowns after Aguirre's conviction confessed to the killings, according to the report. Witnesses also said Samantha and her mother had a heated argument before the killings, and that Samantha sent her boyfriend to her mother's trailer the next morning, saying she had a "bad feeling" something had happened to her.

Nina Morrison, a lawyer for the Innocence Project, told Reuters that Samantha Williams has been subpoenaed to testify Wednesday.

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DNA evidence may clear Honduran man sentenced to death in Florida