Sample Arrestee DNA Success

NEW MEXICO

“Katie’s Law”, which requires DNA be taken at the time of felony arrest, was implemented in January 2007

• Over 1400 cold cases have been matched to felony arrestee DNA
• The first match was to a the first sample taken under the new law, which was taken one hour and fourteen minutes after the law took effect—it matched a double homicide. James Mansuco has since been convicted of both of those murders.
• Israel Diaz was arrested for burglary and his DNA matched to a rape and muder of an eleven year old girl. The match also exonerated Robert Gonzales who had been jailed for over two years awaiting trial for the murder
• Katie’s Law Success Story
• Jedidiah Rose was arrested in April 2014 for embezzlement of a motor vehicle.  His DNA was taken under Katie’s Law and it matched to the DNA found on a bloody band-aid at the scene of the 1996 murder of Richard Brodbeck who had been murdered on his forty-fourth birthday.  Until Rose was arrested, Brodbeck’s murder had gone unsolved for twenty years. When confronted with the DNA evidence, Rose confessed to the murder

COLORADO

“Katie’s Law”, which requires DNA to be taken at the time of felony arrest, was implemented in September of 2010

• 40 cold cases were matched to arrestee DNA samples in the first four months, nine of which were to cold case rapes.
• Robert Howard Bruce was arrested in Colorado for a felony and his DNA taken. His DNA matched to several cold case rapes, and as a result of this DNA match Bruce has been convicted of five counts of rape, ten counts of burglary, two counts of sexual battery and one count of forcible sodomy in Oklahoma going back to 1985.  He has also been convicted of eight counts of rape in New Mexico going back to 1991.
• William Costello, a successful real estate broker with powerful political ties in Colorado was arrested for felony assault after a political argument which resulted in an elderly man breaking his hip. Under “Katie’s Law” his DNA was taken and it matched crime scene DNA in the rape of three teen-aged girls, one as young as 13.  Costello was arrested for these crimes and committed suicide in custody during his trial.
• A suspect was finally arrested for a 2004 murder in Colorado after his DNA was taken under California’s felony arrestee DNA testing law when he was arrested for a felony robbery and a match was made to the crime scene DNA from the 2004 Colorado murder.

CALIFORNIA

California collects DNA at the time of a felony arrest under “Proposition 69”, a voter’s intitiative which passed overwhelmingly 62-38% in 2004

• A man arrested for receiving stolen property was swabbed and his DNA matched the DNA found at the scene of a 1977 rape and murder of an 80-year-old woman.
• The 2004 cold case murder of Juanita Johnson was solved when her killer was required to submit DNA when he was arrested for a domestic violence charge. He has since been tried and convicted for Johnson’s murder.
• Donald Carter was convicted of the 1989 murder of Sophia McAllister after he was arrested for a narcotics charge. His DNA matched crime scene DNA found at the scene of McAllister’s murder.
• Christopher Rogers was arrested in April of 2009 in Sacramento for assault with a deadly weapon, a charge that was ultimately reduced to a misdemeanor. The conviction of this misdemeanor would not have required that his DNA be taken.  But his DNA collected at the time of his felony arrest was matched to DNA taken at the scene of a 2004 murder in Sacramento. Rogers was convicted of that murder.
• Octavia Castillo was arrested in February of 2011 for receiving stolen property. His DNA was taken, and he was released pending trial.  His DNA matched the crime scene DNA for the violent kidnapping and sodomy of a 28-year-old-woman.
• California is now averaging ten matches a day to their DNA database.
• California has seen an increase of over 125% matches on the DNA database since including those arrested for a felony.

VIRGINIA

Virginia was one of the first states in the US to take DNA at the time of felony arrest.

• Jorge Torrez was arrested in Virginia on robbery and abduction charges. His DNA matched the DNA found at the scene of the horrific slayings of two young girls in Zion, Illinois.  As a result, Jerry Hobbs was exonerated of the crimes, after spending five years behind bars.  Torrez was found guilty of a murder in Virginia, given the death sentence for that murder, and is awaiting trial in Illinois.

FLORIDA

Florida takes a DNA sample from those arrested from all felonies

• Jan Cornell prayed every day that the murderer of her 11-year old daughter, Robin, and her roommate Lisa Story would be brought to justice. The murders took place in 1990.  She never gave up.  And twenty-six years later when Joseph Zieler was arrested for an unrelated felony charge of aggravated battery, and swabbed under Florida’s arrestee DNA testing law, Jan saw her prayers answered.  Zieler’s DNA matched the crime scene DNA from the 1990 murders.  Zieler was arrested and for those murders in and is now awaiting trial. Had Zieler pled guilty to a misdemeanor, which is highly likely, he would have never faced justice for his heinous crimes and Jan Cornell would have gone on without the answers she so desperately needed.