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NewsApril 28, 2008

DNA evidence collected in the 1992 homicide of Angela "Mischelle" Lawless has eliminated Joshua Kezer, the man convicted of the crime and currently serving a 60-year sentence at a maximum-security prison in Jefferson City, Mo, as a possible contributor for the blood and other physical evidence found at the scene...

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DNA evidence collected in the 1992 homicide of Angela "Mischelle" Lawless has eliminated Joshua Kezer, the man convicted of the crime and currently serving a 60-year sentence at a maximum-security prison in Jefferson City, Mo, as a possible contributor for the blood and other physical evidence found at the scene.

Now, Kezer's attorney, Charles Weiss, handling the case pro bono, and Scott County Sheriff Rick Walter, who re-opened the homicide investigation in 2006, want to see the evidence entered into the national database, called CODIS, something the Missouri State Highway Patrol says may not be possible.

Lawless was killed in her car at the northbound exit ramp of Interstate 55 in Benton, Mo., in November 1992.

In 2006, detective Branden Caid, working the new investigation for Scott County, brought all of the physical evidence, including multiple blood samples found at the crime scene, back to the Southeast Missouri Regional Crime Lab for testing, said Pam Johnson, crime lab supervisor.

The type of DNA analysis required on some of the samples was a sensitive technique involving low copy DNA, where a few cells are analyzed.

It was something that the Southeast lab did not do in 2006, and typically referred clients to the Marshall University Forensic Science Center in West Virginia, Johnson said.

The evidence, including nail clippings, fingernail scrapings, and several samples of blood taken from both suspects and the crime scene, was properly packaged by the crime lab at Southeast and sent to Marshall, including samples that had never been tested.

At Marshall, scientists were able to extract a partial genetic profile based on blood evidence from a blood-stained paper towel. It was compared to samples from Kezer as well as some of the original suspects in the case.

That profile contained enough genetic markers required to be entered into CODIS, Caid said.

Kezer's DNA was not a possible much to any of the crime scene evidence, Weiss said.

When the evidence was returned to Scott County, since it wasn't a match to the man convicted of the murder, Caid and Walter wanted to submit the samples to CODIS, a database which uses two indexes, one for forensic evidence located at crime scenes and one for convicted offenders, to generate potential matches.

Because the results were sent to Marshall, on the crime lab's recommendation, they were told by the highway patrol the evidence could not be submitted to CODIS because another lab's tests cannot be verified.

"It's a universal policy that once one lab performs tests another lab cannot speak for their results," said Maj. Ronald K. Replogle, commander of the highway patrol's criminal investigation division.

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Replogle said the highway patrol has offered to re-examine all of the physical evidence in the case to see if other DNA evidence untouched by Marshall can be tested.

Stephen Hinesly, director of the crime laboratory division of the highway patrol, explained that the policy of not running tests on evidence that has been previously done by a reputable lab prevents a law enforcement agency from "shopping around until someone tells them what they want to hear."

In order to be able to enter the samples in CODIS, Hinesly said he would need to send his own staff to West Virginia and perform an audit of the methods used a that lab, something that is not possible or practical.

Hinesly said he did not know why the lab at Southeast referred the evidence to Marshall, and that it may have been a mistake.

It wasn't a mistake, it was simply bad timing, Johnson said.

Caid's request happened to coincide with the lab at Southeast, then a part of Southeast Missouri State University, merging with the highway patrol's crime lab, and protocols were changing.

When the lab was part of the university, it generally referred those cases to Marshall, but as a state highway patrol lab, it was bound by a different test of protocol, Johnson said.

"It's a complicated protocol," she said.

Entering the DNA into CODIS and getting a match to a convicted felony isn't a slam dunk for the case, Caid said. It would, however, help to generate new investigative leads, and he would certainly interview the offender about the finding.

The Innocence Project in New York City became involved in Kezer's innocence claim and took over the costs of some of the testing. The evidence was shipped to ReliaGene, an independent lab in New Orleans. Because the Innocence project was funding the testing, only those samples that could eliminate Kezer were tested, Caid said.

"I would like to see all of the evidence tested," Caid said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245

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