Court Success of DNA Process Generates Grant

The use of a powerful new DNA process last year to help Orange County investigators arrest a suspected serial killer in a 17-year-old case has paid off in another way.

The district attorney’s office said Wednesday that using new technology to make a discovery in an old crime helped the county win a $300,000 state grant to reopen other unsolved killings and violent sex cases.

“That case shows what can be accomplished to serve the interests of justice when you apply some of the new technology available,” said Michael Carrington, deputy director of the state office of criminal justice planning, which awarded the grant.

“Obviously, unsolved homicides are of concern to everyone and need to be dealt with,” he said.

The district attorney’s office wants to use the funds to form an investigative group called TracKRS--Task Force Review Aimed at Catching Killers, Rapists and Sex Offenders--that would use an extensive, centralized computer database.

The database, an expanded version of the one already employed by the district attorney’s office, would allow investigators to compare facts from unsolved Orange County cases with information from closed cases.

Law enforcement officials believe Orange County can lead the state in breaking old cases when the group links with law enforcement agencies countywide.

“It’s the first of its kind where all agencies would participate and the first of its kind that would be this user-friendly and this available,” said Loren Duchesne, chief of the district attorney’s bureau of investigations.

The district attorney’s existing database showed the crime-solving potential last June, when investigators used a powerful new DNA process on old evidence to arrest Gerald Parker, a former Marine at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

Parker was charged with six murders committed by the “Bludgeon Killer” in the 1970s, and his arrest led to the release of Kevin Lee Green, who had spent 17 years in prison for one of the crimes. Detectives say Parker confessed to the homicides. He has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial in Orange County Superior Court.

The district attorney’s office would use $150,000 of the grant to further develop the database, link it to other agencies and train people how to use it. The money also would help pay for the investigation and prosecution of cases generated by the project.

The state funds would also go to local law enforcement agencies to cover the costs of investigations.

Duchesne said additional funding is needed to run a task force staffed by about 12 people, including investigators, forensic specialists and prosecutors solely working on unsolved cases. It had not been determined how many investigators will staff the program under the state grant or where the database and task force would be based.

Carrington said his office may provide further funding, but must first see how well the project succeeds with the state grant.

“We will evaluate the program upon completion,” he said. “If we find a program that works and there can be funding available, historically, we can expand it. We are hopeful it will be successful and give them the tools they need to solve these cases because the families and the victims deserve that solution.”