By Mike Wagner

The Columbus Dispatch Friday August 3, 2012 7:03 AM

On the day he was sentenced to life in prison for killing his ex-wife, Douglas Prade stood up in court, defiantly proclaimed his innocence and challenged the justice system to find the real killer.

God, Margo, myself and the person who killed Margo know that I am innocent, he said.

Now, 14 years later, lab-test results show that DNA recovered from the Summit County murder scene didnt come from Prade, a former Akron police captain convicted of killing Margo Prade, a prominent doctor and the mother of his two children.

Prade, 66 and serving a life sentence at the Madison Correctional Institution, was found guilty of shooting Margo six times after a struggle in her van in a parking lot outside of her office.

The DNA testing, conducted by DNA Diagnostics Center of Fairfield, north of Cincinnati, focused on the lab coat Margo Prade was wearing during the attack, and specifically a bite mark left on her arm by her killer.

Testing results found male DNA present within the bite mark, but it didnt match Douglas Prade. Further testing of the lab coat and other evidence conducted by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation also excluded Prades DNA.

The bite mark was pivotal in the prosecutions case against Prade. During his trial, an expert testified that the bite mark matched Prades teeth.

But Prade and his attorneys have argued that the bite mark testimony was based on junk science, and it misled the jury in a case that has received national attention.

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Convicted cop’s DNA not on coat