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By Ben Aguirre Jr., STAFF WRITER
FREMONT -- A DNA expert testified Monday that a man charged with a 1997 rape but not arrested until five years later probably is the source of sperm found inside the victim.
Lisa Calandro, a former employee at Forensic Analytical, the forensic laboratory that processed evidence in the case, said DNA samples from Gregory Charles Smith, a 33-year-old convicted felon, matched that found in the victim.
"So you can't eliminate Gregory Smith as the source?" Assistant District Attorney Tom
Barni asked.
"Correct," Calandro replied.
Smith has been charged in the case of a then-16-year-old Fremont girl who tol
police she was kidnapped and raped as she headed to her Cabrillo neighborhood condominium on Jan. 12, 1997.
The girl was grabbed from behind and was not able to give authorities a physical descript
ion, as she did not see her attacker's face, police said.
P
reliminary examination in the case against Smith began Monday and is expected to continue through Wednesday, with the victim taking the stand today, Barni said.
Smith, a Hayward resident who has two prior convictions for first-degree burglary, one in 1994 and the other in 1997, according to court records, was arrested May 2, 2003, in connection with the rape.
As a convicted criminal, Smith was required to give a DNA sample to the California Department of Justice while in custody in 1997, and it was entered into the California Convicted Offender DNA Databank, police said.
Later, authorities were able to use the database and name Smith as a suspect.
Prosecutor Barni said Monday that Calandro was an
expert in DNA and that she had processed the samples from the victim and Smith.
She spent about 30 minutes describing the process by which the laboratory received the evidence from the Fremon
t Po
lice Department and the protocol she used to analyze the DNA.
Testing of three swabs taken
from the victim proved that there were traces of semen inside her, Calandro said. It also was determined that there were only two types of DNA -- the victim's and the attacker's.
Through advances in technology, Calandro said, lab technicians were able to locate specific markers on the sperm DNA that could help profile the suspect.
Further analysis showed that the suspected attacker probably was black as opposed to white or Latino, she said.
"Mr. Smith is included because his type matched," Calandro said, trying to clarify how Smith was located in the database.
Defense attorney Fred Remer cross-examined Calandro, trying to discredit her and the laboratory an
d expose possible flaws in the handling of the evidence.
"Is it not true that you made assumptions in this case?" Remer asked the witness.
Calandro denied his assert
ion, say
ing she had made assessments based on widely used databases and numbers.
Through further questioning, Remer also determined that the lab w
as not nationally accredited until a year after the evidence first was tested in September 1997, that the DNA had been properly stored and that two other suspects had been eliminated in the case during the analysis.
Staff writer Ben Aguirre Jr. covers police and the courts for The Argus. He can be reached at (510) 353-7011 or baguirre@angnewspapers.com .
http://www.theargusonline.com/Stories/0,14...2199456,00.html
By Ben Aguirre Jr., STAFF WRITER
FREMONT -- A DNA expert testified Monday that a man charged with a 1997 rape but not arrested until five years later probably is the source of sperm found inside the victim.
Lisa Calandro, a former employee at Forensic Analytical, the forensic laboratory that processed evidence in the case, said DNA samples from Gregory Charles Smith, a 33-year-old convicted felon, matched that found in the victim.
"So you can't eliminate Gregory Smith as the source?" Assistant District Attorney Tom
Barni asked.
"Correct," Calandro replied.
Smith has been charged in the case of a then-16-year-old Fremont girl who tol
police she was kidnapped and raped as she headed to her Cabrillo neighborhood condominium on Jan. 12, 1997.
The girl was grabbed from behind and was not able to give authorities a physical descript
ion, as she did not see her attacker's face, police said.
P
reliminary examination in the case against Smith began Monday and is expected to continue through Wednesday, with the victim taking the stand today, Barni said.
Smith, a Hayward resident who has two prior convictions for first-degree burglary, one in 1994 and the other in 1997, according to court records, was arrested May 2, 2003, in connection with the rape.
As a convicted criminal, Smith was required to give a DNA sample to the California Department of Justice while in custody in 1997, and it was entered into the California Convicted Offender DNA Databank, police said.
Later, authorities were able to use the database and name Smith as a suspect.
Prosecutor Barni said Monday that Calandro was an
expert in DNA and that she had processed the samples from the victim and Smith.
She spent about 30 minutes describing the process by which the laboratory received the evidence from the Fremon
t Po
lice Department and the protocol she used to analyze the DNA.
Testing of three swabs taken
from the victim proved that there were traces of semen inside her, Calandro said. It also was determined that there were only two types of DNA -- the victim's and the attacker's.
Through advances in technology, Calandro said, lab technicians were able to locate specific markers on the sperm DNA that could help profile the suspect.
Further analysis showed that the suspected attacker probably was black as opposed to white or Latino, she said.
"Mr. Smith is included because his type matched," Calandro said, trying to clarify how Smith was located in the database.
Defense attorney Fred Remer cross-examined Calandro, trying to discredit her and the laboratory an
d expose possible flaws in the handling of the evidence.
"Is it not true that you made assumptions in this case?" Remer asked the witness.
Calandro denied his assert
ion, say
ing she had made assessments based on widely used databases and numbers.
Through further questioning, Remer also determined that the lab w
as not nationally accredited until a year after the evidence first was tested in September 1997, that the DNA had been properly stored and that two other suspects had been eliminated in the case during the analysis.
Staff writer Ben Aguirre Jr. covers police and the courts for The Argus. He can be reached at (510) 353-7011 or baguirre@angnewspapers.com .
http://www.theargusonline.com/Stories/0,14...2199456,00.html