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Chicago Tribune--
DNA data detailed, challenged
Evidence taken from dinner was lost, scientist says
By Carlos Sadovi
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 19, 2007
An Illinois State Police crime lab scientist testified Wednesday that
she identified DNA profiles of two people in 1998 from a partially
eaten chicken dinner taken from the Brown's Chicken and Pasta
restaurant in Palatine where seven people were killed five years
earlier.
But defense lawyers, who contend the case has been plagued by shoddy
investigative work, argued that the swabs used to collect the
evidence, plus a computer that contained the analysis, later were
lost.
The testimony of Cecilia Doyle, now a section chief at the lab, came
during the trial in Cook County Circuit Court of Juan Luna, charged
with killing five workers and the restaurant's two owners on Jan. 8,
1993.
Before Doyle took the stand to testify for the prosecution, Henry Lee,
a forensic scientist who has been involved in such high-profile cases
as the O.J. Simpson murder trial, said he knew DNA on the dinner was a
key piece of evidence. Hired by investigators in 1994 as an adviser,
he said he told officials to send the dinner out for DNA analysis.
"This was a significant finding because there was only one meal in the
garbage. This individual [would] either be a witness or a suspect,"
Lee said.
Luna, 33, and his friend James Degorski, 34, were arrested in 2002
after Luna's DNA was linked to the chicken, prosecutors said..... |