Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Change of Venue Back To County Denied For Dansby (cont) (cont)

f Dansby was read his rights at the time. Morman said, "No."

The barrister then asked if Dansby had been given a copy of the warrant.

"We gave him a copy, he looked at it and gave it back," Morman said. "We didn't give him one to keep, and didn't ask if he wanted to talk to an attorney. We didn't discuss lawyers."

Morman said he watched as Dr. Young drew the blood, filling two vials, but first saying only one vial had been taken.

The blood was then given to Duval, while Morman took Dansby home.

"I never saw the blood again," Morman told the court. "I don't know where it is or what happened to it."

On cross examination by Haltom, Morman recalled the second vial being drawn.

He also said before Dansby was taken home, he was taken to the NCSO where handwriting samples were taken.

Morman said he did not administer the handwriting test, telling the court Ursery was at the NCSO when it was done.

Once these tests were done, Morman said he took Dansby home.

Pratt then addressed the court saying a letter dated Jan. 24, 1994, written by Kermit Channel with the crime lab to Duval, stated the FBI reported the DNA profile did not match Dansby from the vaginal swab taken from Clark's body. This report, Pratt said, was not signed.

An apparent second test was ran on the sample by the FBI lab, with Channel getting another letter, this one on Jan. 17, 1995. This report stated the blood found on the swab had a match of Dansby's blood, with the probability of a random match being 1-180.

On April 11, 1995, a letter was written from Haltom to the FBI asking them to send what they had left of the sample to Cellmark Labs of Germantown, Md., for a second opinion.

The results of this test showed a possible 1:6,700 match for Dansby.

Pratt said because of the severity of discrepancies in the results, especially the initial result which not only stated the sample was no match for Dansby, but returned to an inmate, James Wood, in a Colorado prison, they should not be allowed into evidence, and asked for a special hearing to determine the qualifications of the expert DNA witnesses and how the tests were performed.

Haltom said there was no need to have a special hearing, arguing the court can hear the witnesses methods and qualifications outside the realm of the jury while the trial is going on.

Griffin told the attorneys he would consider the situation and determine if another hearing is needed. He advised the state and defense to keep their calendars clear on March 31 and April 2 in case a hearing is held.