April 4
TEXAS:
Evidence from Lake Waco murders case to be sent to Arkansas lab
Evidence from the decades-old Lake Waco triple murders case soon will be sent
to an Arkansas laboratory for DNA testing, marking what could be one of the
last chapters of an effort to prove the wrong men were convicted of the grisly
crime.
Judge Matt Johnson of Waco's 54th State District Court last week signed an
order authorizing the testing. It will be performed by Arkansas Genomics, a
private laboratory located in Little Rock.
A defense team working on behalf of Anthony Melendez has been trying to get the
evidence tested for years. They think it will clear him of the 1982 murders,
which took the lives of 3 teenagers.
Melendez, now 53 years old, pleaded guilty in exchange for 2 life sentences.
But he later recanted, saying he lied about his involvement to avoid a
potential death sentence.
There is no definite timetable for when the testing results might be available,
said Waco attorney Walter M. Reaves Jr. But it likely won't take longer than a
few months, assuming the evidence can be successfully tested, he said.
"I think it's huge," said Reaves, who has helped lead the exoneration effort.
"We weren't even sure we would get to this point a couple of years ago. The
fact that we're here and are getting to a place where we might be able to test
something and get results is definitely positive." A DNA testing consultant
hired by Melendez's legal team thinks those items are the most likely to yield
valuable evidence, Reaves said.
The shoelaces obviously were touched by someone involved in the killings,
Reaves said. The proximity of the beer cans to the crime scene also makes it
likely they were touched by a perpetrator, he said.
The consultant has spent the past few months going through the evidence after
it was returned by a California lab originally hired to do the DNA testing.
Author Fredric Dannen, who is partnering with Reaves in the exoneration effort,
first sent evidence there more than a decade ago.
Early testing did not yield usable information. Reaves and Dannen decided to
try newer testing methods that weren't available at the California lab. But
when they asked the scientists there to send the evidence to another facility,
a dispute developed.
The lab claimed tubes of DNA it extracted from the evidence was its work
product and refused to release them.
Court battle
That resulted in a series of court hearings last year, both here and in
California. Johnson eventually ordered one of the scientists from the lab to
bring the evidence here.
In lieu of that, the lab agreed to send the evidence to the Tarrant County
Medical Examiner's Office, which has acted as a secure storage site for the
items.
The Fort Worth facility now will send the evidence to Arkansas for the new
round of testing. Once the items are there, the first step will be to see if
they are in good enough condition to test, Reaves said.
Because the evidence is more than 30 years old, it could be too degraded to
yield reliable results.
But Reaves said he is optimistic about the odds of getting usable information
since the Arkansas lab specializes in difficult evidence samples.
If the items initially sent aren't testable, Melendez's legal team will see if
other items collected at the crime scene might be suitable for testing, Reaves
said. But none have the same probative value as the shoelaces and beer cans, he
said.
4 convictions
Former McLennan County District Attorney Vic Feazell and former Waco lawman
Truman Simons, who were instrumental in building the case against Melendez and
his 3 co-defendants, have said they are confident the right men were convicted.
Most of the victims' family members feel the same way, though several have said
they aren't opposed to the idea of new DNA testing in the case.
1 of Melendez's co-defendants, David Wayne Spence, was executed in 1997.
Suspect Muneer Deeb also was initially sentenced to death. But he was acquitted
at a 1993 re-trial. He died from cancer 6 years later.
The final defendant was Melendez's brother, Gilbert Melendez. He also pleaded
guilty and got 2 life terms. He died in prison in 1998 of complications from
HIV.
(source: Waco Tribune Herald)
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