DNA testing ordered on evidence from 2007 slaying; convicted man says he’s innocent – Omaha World-Herald

The forensic evidence recovered by Omaha police four bullet casings and a black T-shirt seemed almost an afterthought in a daylight shooting witnessed by multiple people.

Witnesses took the stand and put a killer away for life. And for 10 years, the items sat in an evidence locker, untested.

But thats about to change.

Douglas County District Judge Peter Bataillon recently ordered DNA examination on the casings and shirt in response to a motion filed late last year by Antoine D. Young. The 43-year-old Omaha man is eight years into a life term for the first-degree murder of Raymond Webb, shot repeatedly while behind the wheel of his car in an Omaha fast-food drive-thru.

Young has always insisted the witnesses got it wrong that he didnt kill anyone.

If forensic analysts can pull a genetic profile from the clothing and casings, it could help settle lingering questions about whether the right man is behind bars.

Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine agreed to allow the DNA tests without an appeal. But that doesnt mean the prosecutor now harbors doubts about Youngs guilt.

Were confident in our conviction, and we dont think theres any issue, Kleine said last week. So why not clear the air?

The judges decision also is significant because it marked the third time Young had sought DNA testing of the evidence.

Its definitely a huge step toward an exoneration for an innocent person, said Tracy Hightower-Henne, an Omaha lawyer with the Nebraska Innocence Project. Young also is being represented by two lawyers with the Midwest Innocence Project in Kansas City, Missouri.

The judges previous denials of Youngs motions for testing relied on a provision of state law that required defendants to show DNA testing was unavailable at the time of their original trials.

DNA testing was common by 2009, when a jury convicted Young, but his trial attorney didnt ask for it. Despite the fact that the evidence had never been tested, the courts essentially ruled that Young had blown his opportunity and was no longer entitled to the testing.

The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed the rulings.

But in 2015 the Nebraska Legislature changed the DNA Testing Act, which had gone on the books in 2001.

The amended law makes it easier for Young and others by allowing courts to order the testing if biological evidence from the cases had not been analyzed before. Lawmakers did away with the need to show that the trials predated the advent of DNA technology.

The amended law also allows retesting of previously tested evidence if a defendant can show that new DNA technology could produce more accurate results.

The Innocence Project reports that of the 349 DNA exonerations in the United States since 1989, 71 percent involved eyewitness misidentification. Youngs trial turned on competing eyewitness testimony.

Jurors heard from six people who witnessed the shooting, which took place shortly before 3 p.m. on Aug. 25, 2007, as Webb sat in the drive-thru lane of a Taco Bell near 62nd Street and Ames Avenue. Four said the shooter wore a black shirt, one said the shirt was white and the sixth was unsure.

Two of the witnesses identified Young as the shooter, saying they were with Young outside a nearby barbershop when Webbs car pulled into the Taco Bell. The two witnesses said they saw Young run across the street and fire the gun through the drivers-side window of Webbs car.

Young now says he has evidence to prove one of those witnesses contacted Youngs brother before the murder trial and offered to withhold his testimony in exchange for $10,000. That witness is now dead.

At trial, three witnesses testified that Young was at a family picnic at a city park 4miles from the Taco Bell the entire afternoon of the shooting. Young has told the court he can produce additional witnesses who will vouch for his alibi.

In addition, Young asserts he can present yet a different witness who identified the shooter as another Omaha man who was released from prison last year after serving time for an unrelated gun crime.

Last summer, before the man was released from state custody, Youngs lawyers put him on the witness stand and asked if he killed Webb. The man invoked his constitutional right to not answer potentially incriminating questions.

The World-Herald is not naming the man because he has not been charged in connection with the case.

Records indicate that police were told there had been a long-running violent feud between the man and the victim. But they also show that authorities eliminated him as a suspect after he passed a polygraph examination.

In the recent DNA order, the judge said testing should be done on the evidence recovered from the crime scene as well as swabs taken from Young and the man whom Young accuses.

It remains to be seen if any identifiable DNA can be recovered from the evidence. Obtaining DNA from bullet casings has proven more difficult than from other sources.

The testing will be done at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and will be paid for by the Innocence Project.

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DNA testing ordered on evidence from 2007 slaying; convicted man says he's innocent - Omaha World-Herald