Twenty-three-year-old Melissa Stefanski was killed by a bullet fired within two centimeters of her head in an alley in Brooklyn. Within months, police identified a suspect, ex-boyfriend Randy Golden; he was convicted this year of first-degree murder and is serving a sentence of life plus eight years in prison.
But neither the prosecutor nor Golden's attorney knew that a city crime lab technician had clipped fingernails from Stefanski's body, checked them for DNA and found a match to another criminal - a close friend of Stefanski's and a known gang member.
The discovery of new evidence in Golden's case comes after the crime lab acknowledged a string of problems that led to the director's firing last summer. Police revealed that in several cases, DNA samples had been contaminated by lab workers' genetic material, and in at least 10 more - including the Stefanski investigation - police did not follow up on crime scene evidence containing a criminal's DNA. The Baltimore Sun obtained the list of 10 cases through a public information act request.
Police say they did not follow up because the evidence was deemed irrelevant to the case. But legal experts say the DNA match was crucial to Golden's defense.
"The detective may deem the DNA hit irrelevant because they think they know who did it - that's what we call tunnel vision," said William C. Thompson, chairman of the department of criminology, law and society at the University of California Irvine. "But it may be extremely relevant for a defense attorney trying to construct an alternative theory of the case. The best thing is to err on the side of disclosure and openness. Otherwise, things look terrible later."
Prosecutors declined to comment on Golden's case. But Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said the revelations of crime lab problems are forcing her office to re-examine prosecutions.
"We're finding out about things we did not know about," she said. "There is now a whole movement to try to make sure that everything is operating in the way that it should be operating. We're now putting in a procedure for DNA hits that involves prosecutors. We're trying to do better, but we're getting caught in lapses."
Golden is appealing his conviction, but currently has no lawyer. His attorney in the trial, Maureen O'Leary, declined to comment for this article other than to say that Golden has always maintained his innocence and that the public defender's office would pursue "every legal remedy" for him.
