NEW CASTLE Judge orders testing on DNA

Prosecutors will determine which items are taken to the state police laboratory.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- DNA tests for Thomas Kimbell's upcoming retrial will be split between two facilities.
Judge Dominick Motto of Lawrence County Common Pleas Court ruled that tests on 10 items will be done at the Pennsylvania State Police Crime Lab in Greensburg, Pa., and eight other items will go to Cellmark, a private laboratory in Germantown, Md.
Conviction: Kimbell, 39, was convicted in the 1994 stabbing deaths of Bonnie Lou Dryfuse, her daughters, Jacqueline, 7, and Heather, 4, and her niece, Stephanie Herko, 5.
He was granted a new trial by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court last year after a judge determined Kimbell's attorney was not allowed to cross-examine a key witness.
Kimbell's attorney, Thomas Leslie, asked for additional DNA testing on 18 items from the murder scene to bolster the defense's argument that someone else is responsible for the deaths.
These items were not tested before the first trial because there was not enough blood or the blood was too degraded to determine the person's identity.
However, new DNA procedures will replicate the blood found in the house until there is enough for testing, Leslie said.
Work backlog: Prosecutor Anthony Krastic from the state attorney general's office argued at a hearing Monday against the new DNA tests being done by state police because of a backlog of work at that laboratory. He said that, at the most, 10 items could be tested there.
Leslie told the judge he preferred that the state police conduct the tests, but Cellmark was also available to do the testing. Each test done by Cellmark will cost $1,095, he said.
Judge Motto's ruling stated that the prosecutor will determine which 10 items out of the 18 will go to the state police crime lab for tests.