Analyst: Print in Routier case may be adult's
Posted on 06/06/2002 9:01:27 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Analyst: Print in Routier case may be adult's
Routier's attorneys say evidence backs intruder theory; finding disputed
06/06/2002
A bloody fingerprint left on Darlie Routier's coffee table six years ago probably belongs to an adult not one of her slain children as alleged at trial, a forensic anthropologist hired by the death row inmate's defense said Wednesday.
Ms. Routier's family and supporters hired Dr. Richard L. Jantz, a University of Tennessee professor, as part of their effort to overturn her conviction.
"My comfort level is fairly high that it's consistent with an adult," Dr. Jantz said of the bloody print. "The evidence does point fairly strongly to an adult, but I also don't want to leave the impression that it's 100 percent likely."
Courtesy file / 2001 A new take on the evidence may support Darlie Routier's story. |
Ms. Routier's attorneys say Dr. Jantz's work means they finally have scientific evidence to bolster her insistence that an intruder entered her family's Rowlett home on June 6, 1996, and fatally stabbed Devon and Damon Routier as they slept downstairs.
Lead prosecutor Greg Davis said prosecutors could not comment because of Ms. Routier's pending appeal. James Cron, the fingerprint analyst who worked the Routier case, said the professor's analysis does not amount to scientific evidence.
"It's not proof," said Mr. Cron, a longtime crime-scene analyst. "If I was called by a third party not called by the prosecution or by the defense I would disagree with him. As a latent print person for 44 years, [I think] his basis for making his opinion regarding fingerprints is not good science."
| Fingerprint analysis | |
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Mr. Cron testified that he ruled out Ms. Routier, her husband, Darin Routier, investigators and emergency personnel as leaving the print. A retired New York detective hired by Ms. Routier's defense previously said the bloody print didn't match those of 6-year-old Devon.
Mr. Cron testified that the bloody print appeared to be that of a child, but the evidence was not compared with the Routier boys' prints before their mother's trial because morgue workers did not take the children's prints usually standard procedure.
Defense attorney J. Stephen Cooper said Ms. Routier is happy about Dr. Jantz's findings. "I think she's obviously encouraged by proving something that she knows to be true," he said.
Eight months after the crime, a Kerr County jury convicted the former homemaker of capital murder and sentenced her to death, deciding that she slashed herself and staged the crime scene while her husband and infant son slept upstairs.
Her family has always defended her, saying she never would have killed her boys.
Ms. Routier's mother, Darlie Kee, said Dr. Jantz's findings gave her satisfaction.
"Just like the feeling when you know you're right about something, that comfort," she said. "It was immense relief and comfort to me."
Ms. Kee said she wants prosecutors to reinvestigate.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin is weighing whether to overturn Ms. Routier's conviction based on claims of trial error, including allegations that her transcript was illegally repaired and misses a key hearing.
Ms. Routier's attorneys also are working on the next part of her appeal, which focuses on new evidence. Mr. Cooper said Dr. Jantz's analysis would be included to challenge the veracity of the state's experts and show evidence of her innocence.
Ms. Routier's attorneys say they tapped Dr. Jantz's expertise because he is a premiere biological and forensic anthropologist. Dr. Jantz said he's been asked only once before by the Los Angeles Police Department to conduct a similar analysis on fingerprints because of his background in fingerprint work.
Dr. Jantz, director of his university's Forensic Anthropology Center, specializes in skeletal research and established a database that developed criteria for estimating sex, age, ethnic background and height in skeletal remains.
Local police dubbed his university's research facility the "body farm" because several acres contain decomposing corpses. The facility, immortalized in a book by mystery novelist Patricia Cornwell, seeks to scientifically document postmortem change.
He said his work in the Routier case focused on features of the finger that change in size as the finger grows, including the length and size of the fingertips and the width between the fingerprint's ridges.
Dr. Jantz compared a life-size photo of the bloody print to his anthropology department's reference samples of adult and children's prints. He also compared the bloody print to known prints of 6-year-old Devon and a scan of 5-year-old Damon's right hand. The children's hands were removed and preserved during an exhumation after Ms. Routier's conviction.
Dr. Jantz also compared the Routier boys' prints to reference samples of prints of children between 4 and 6 ½ years old. He concluded that the Routier boys' prints were similar in size to other children and smaller than the bloody print.
"The latent print consistently has a higher probability of having been made by an adult," he wrote in a report, adding that the probability ranges from 76 to 98 percent.
Dr. Jantz said this means "that we are not 100 percent sure as we never are in science this print was made by an adult."
Mr. Cron said a fingerprint examiner must consider many variables before giving an opinion on size. In this case, he said, the bloody finger affected the appearance of its print.
Mr. Cron, who said he has reviewed "thousands upon thousands" of prints, also considered the bloody finger's width and the size of the fingertip, two criteria that led him to believe it's likely a child's print.
"I think he's out of his field," he said. "He's doing the typical thing that, God love them, scientists do they take 1,000 people and 780 have a certain thing, so that's the tendency. We look at the ridges, period."
Mr. Cron agreed that no one could say with 100 percent certainty whether the print belongs to an adult or a child.
E-mail hbecka@dallasnews.com
Lead prosecutor Greg Davis said prosecutors could not comment because of Ms. Routier's pending appeal. James Cron, the fingerprint analyst who worked the Routier case, said the professor's analysis does not amount to scientific evidence.
"It's not proof," said Mr. Cron, a longtime crime-scene analyst. "If I was called by a third party not called by the prosecution or by the defense I would disagree with him. As a latent print person for 44 years, [I think] his basis for making his opinion regarding fingerprints is not good science."
Routier Family Before The Murder
http://crimelibrary.com/fillicide/routier/images/APG485029%20Darlie,%20Darin,%20Damon%20&%20Devon.jpg
Blood Evidence, The Knife
http://www.fox.com/mdmystery/103/images/routier_crime_scene_photo_06.jpg
Darlie Lynn Routier 999220
2305 Ransom Road
Gatesville, TX 76528 USA
She's a liar - and has to be evil to have killed her own children....... fry her!
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