Second trial for rape continues

By Ed Runyan

A second test was done on the male DNA recovered from the girl’s body.

WARREN — Nearly a year after a jury said it couldn’t reach a verdict on whether Martin E. Warren raped a 13-year-old relative at his house in 2006, a scientist from North Carolina testified that his lab found possible new evidence of the rape.

A. Dwayne Winston of the private company LabCorp said the Y chromosome STR test that LabCorp conducted this year on four DNA samples taken from the girl’s body showed that there was a one in 19 chance that the DNA had come from Martin E. Warren or a male relative of his.

Alan J. Matavich, Warren’s attorney, asked Winston if that means his test doesn’t prove that the DNA came from Warren.

Winston, a superviser at the lab, said it indicates that a result was found on three of the 17 genetic markers contained in a person’s DNA, and all three were consistent with Warren’s DNA.

The test his lab conducted is “a little more sensitive” than the DNA test conducted a couple of years ago on the same sample material by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation in Richfield, Winston said.

In the earlier trial, a BCI scientist said testing on DNA found in the girl’s underwear indicated that the chances that the DNA had come from anyone but Warren was 1 in 4 quintillion — more people than there are on the planet.

But testimony also indicated that the DNA sample taken from the girl’s body was not large enough to prove anything except that a man’s DNA was inside her — not whose DNA, or how it got there.

After the trial ended, prosecutors received permission from Judge Peter Kontos of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to have the remaining fluid from a rape kit done at a local hospital tested by LabCorp.

LabCorp can conduct Y chromosome STR DNA testing, which is different from the kind conducted by BCI, known as autosomal DNA. But Y chromosome STR DNA testing has limitations also, Winston testified Wednesday. Y chromosome STR DNA testing cannot distinguish between men in the same family the way autosomal DNA can, Winston said.

It also cannot be used to identify a female, but it is helpful in rape cases involving a mixture of male and female DNA, he said.

After receiving the results of the newest test, prosecutors decided to try Warren again. The trial began Monday with jury selection. The victim testified on Tuesday.

Warren, 61, could go to prison for up to 10 years if convicted. Testimony will continue today.

The girl has testified that she was home alone with Warren and went downstairs to help him switch to a different Internet game on his computer.

She sat on his lap and tickled him on the stomach, as she sometimes did, and he teasingly threatened to “blow bubbles” on her stomach, as he had done for years, she testified.

But Warren started kissing her on the neck, which he had never done before, and eventually partially removed her clothing and partially removed his, she said. He then kissed her in her private area before committing another offense against her, she said.

runyan@vindy.com