Special DNA tests sought in rape case

Further proceedings must wait until at least March 16.

STAFF report

WARREN — Prosecutors are hoping a different laboratory than the one the state usually uses will be able to determine whether a bodily fluid recovered from a 13-year-old girl in 2006 came from Martin E. Warren of Champion.

Diane Barber, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor, filed a motion this week in common pleas court asking Judge Peter Kontos to allow the independent Laboratory Corporation of America to analyze one of the swabs of body fluid taken from the girl to determine whether Warren’s DNA is in the sample.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation conducted a DNA test on the sample and was unable to determine whether Warren’s DNA was present.

But a different kind of test, called Y chromosome STR test, might provide a different result, Barber said.

The prosecution is taking steps to try Warren, 60, a second time on a charge that he raped the girl in the basement of his Cleveland Avenue home in 2006.

A jury was unable to decide Warren’s guilt or innocence on one count of rape during a trial last month but found him innocent of a second rape charge.

Before a retrial proceeds, Judge Kontos must rule on whether to allow the fluid sample to be tested a second time. A second test would use up the remainder of the sample, court documents say.

Warren’s defense team argued that it, instead of the prosecution, should be allowed to test the sample.

Judge Kontos has asked the parties to identify dates by March 16 when experts hired by the defense and prosecution would be available to participate in the testing together.