Raleigh, N.C. A DNA swab taken from the bed sheet that state school board member Kathy Taft had been sleeping on when she was attacked two years ago could not have matched anyone but her accused killer, two analysts testified Friday in his first-degree murder trial. <\/p>\n
Williford's wife files for divorce <\/p>\n
Michelle Hannon, a forensic biologist specializing in DNA at the North Carolina State Crime Laboratory, said that there was a 1 in 1 trillion chance that the sperm fraction belonged to someone other than Jason Keith Williford. She noted that the world population at the time of testing was about 6.8 billion people. <\/p>\n
Advanced testing by private laboratory LabCorp found the probability of the DNA belonging to someone else was 1 in 6.8 billion, the lab's forensics technical director Shawn Weiss said. <\/p>\n
Jason Williford trial (Day 3) <\/p>\n
Prosecutors seeking the death penalty contend that Williford broke into the Raleigh home of Taft's boyfriend, John Geil, where she had been recovering from surgery and raped and beat the 62-year-old early on March 6, 2010 <\/p>\n
Defense attorneys challenged Hannon's testimony, bringing up questions raised in 2010 about the crime lab's testing procedures, her qualifications as a DNA analyst and the internal pressure associated with working on a high-profile murder case. <\/p>\n
They also tried to keep Weiss from testifying, arguing before Superior Court Judge Paul Gessner that they were at an unfair advantage because they couldn't adequately question the testing procedures because Weiss analyzed only results of tests performed by a LabCorp technician. <\/p>\n
Crime scene investigators spent Friday morning showing jurors videos and photos of 2710 Cartier Drive as it was after Taft's attack, as well as Williford's home, less than two blocks away. <\/p>\n
At Williford's home, investigators found knives, one of which was hidden beneath his bed mattress, pornographic DVDs and a \"journal of sobriety,\" among other items. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
See the original post here: Raleigh, N.C. A DNA swab taken from the bed sheet that state school board member Kathy Taft had been sleeping on when she was attacked two years ago could not have matched anyone but her accused killer, two analysts testified Friday in his first-degree murder trial. Continue reading
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