DNA key to burglary charges
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/03/2012 (4975 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A bail hearing has offered a glimpse into how police gather DNA evidence used to link suspects to specific crimes.
In this case, DNA was used to allegedly connect a single suspect to two dated burglaries.
“The Crown’s case, I’d suggest, is strong given the DNA evidence,” Crown attorney Garry Rainnie said in Brandon court recently as he described the investigations.
Rainnie’s courtroom account offers a little insight into how city police use DNA to solve crimes. Police generally decline to describe investigation techniques.
On Oct. 21, 2007, around 4:30 a.m., someone broke into a home on Buttercup Bay as the resident and a number of party guests slept.
As the burglar dismantled a light fixture outside the kitchen window, he cut himself and left blood on the light, window frame and backsplash in the kitchen.
From inside the home, the intruder swiped a number of items that included some cash, cigarettes and a jacket that had the keys to a 2000 Pontiac Grand Am in the pocket.
The burglar then entered the parked car and took some more cash, although he left a small amount of blood behind.
Police took blood samples from the light fixture glass, the window frame and the backsplash.
Those were sent to an RCMP lab and the resulting DNA profiles were stored in the national DNA databank.
The RCMP maintains the National DNA Databank which can be used to match DNA profiles collected from crime scenes to those of convicted offenders who are ordered to provide DNA samples at sentencing.
Then, on April 4, 2010, a suspect entered a home on the 1600-block of Victoria Avenue and stole a variety of items such as a video game console, games, an iPod, cash, clothes and a laptop computer.
While in the home, the brazen burglar took time to smoke a cigarette and left the butt on the coffee table.
Police seized the cigarette butt and managed to extract unspecified DNA evidence from it. That DNA profile was entered into the databank, too.
In late September 2011, the DNA samples collected from both the October 2007 and April 2010 break-ins were matched to a man who was already in the Brandon jail serving a sentence for yet another break-in.
He was later released after serving his time on that matter, but allegedly failed to attend court on Feb. 9.
Angus Kyle Webster, 23, who also goes by the surname of Mintuck, is charged with two counts of break and enter to commit theft and with failing to attend court.
Judge Krystyna Tarwid denied Webster bail at the conclusion of this week’s bail hearing.
His next court date is on March 29.
» ihitchen@brandonsun.com