DNA ties 5-year-old robbery to Cape man

A nearly 5-year-old felony robbery case in Cape Girardeau County was bound over to Division I of the circuit court Wednesday after testimony at a preliminary hearing connected Robert D. Heyl's DNA to that found on clothing worn by the person who committed the robbery.

Heyl, 56, of Cape Girardeau was charged with first-degree robbery and armed criminal action in August 2006 in connection to a robbery that occurred April 4, 2005, at Quik Cash, 125 S. Broadview St. in Cape Girardeau.

A witness who was held at knifepoint during the robbery testified Wednesday that a man entered the store wearing a black Carhart jacket and blue gloves with red stripes. He got away with about $1,100 in cash.

"She said that she didn't notice at the time, but she thought later that he had a woman's nylon over his face," Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said. "It really didn't prevent her from seeing his face, it just made it blurry."

A former Cape Girardeau police officer, Daryl Ferris, testified he found the black jacket, gloves and the nylon in a trash bin near the Quik Cash business.

Rodney Edwards, a detective in Cape Girardeau at the time of the crime, testified that once the clothing was found, a swab of Heyl's mouth was done and sent to the Missouri State Highway Patrol Crime Laboratory Division.

DNA profiles were developed from the gloves and nylon and matched profiles of Heyl's mouth swab, according to the state highway patrol's crime lab. The forensic lab report as completed in 2006.

At the time Heyl was charged, he was in custody on other matters in Mississippi. Prosecutors in Cape Girardeau County had to extradite Heyl to Missouri, which wasn't finalized until mid-2009.

"It's a cold case that would never have been solved in prosecutable form if it weren't for the DNA," Swingle said.

Heyl will appear before Circuit Court Judge William L. Syler March 15.

ehevern@semissourian.com

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