FBI database failed to match fugitive’s prints

September 10, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

NEWARK, Ohio

Authorities are investigating how an Arizona fugitive who disappeared nearly 30 years ago while on probation for beating an apartment manager to death eluded police despite numerous arrests in a central Ohio county.

John Whiting remained in Licking County Jail on Thursday after an Ohio judge’s order he be returned to Maricopa County in Arizona by Oct. 1. Jail and court records don’t list a defense attorney.

He was arrested Tuesday in Newark, where he was living under an alias.

Whiting, 57, was charged 14 times and convicted eight times in Licking County while he was a fugitive, The Newark Advocate reported.

The Ohio charges include drunken driving and aggravated menacing. Licking County Sheriff Randy Thorp said he’s looking into why an FBI database didn’t match Whiting’s fingerprints to the Arizona arrest warrant.

Whiting was convicted of beating a Phoenix apartment complex manager to death Oct. 8, 1978, according to Maricopa County Adult Probation records.

The manager, Harold Gilbert, 53, apparently had let Whiting live with him to help him out, said Jim Frost of the probation department’s fugitive apprehension unit.

Whiting, who was arrested almost immediately, later was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced March 2, 1979, to a year in jail with credit for time served since his arrest.

A warrant was issued Sept. 16, 1980, after Whiting failed to contact his probation officer the month before, Frost said.

It’s possible the fingerprints Whiting provided on the paper card used in those days may have been poor quality, or the prints themselves never made it into the FBI database, said Sgt. Jesse Spurgin, a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

Whiting was traced to Ohio after Frost reviewed the case file at the request of the U.S. marshals who were looking into cold cases. Frost found an alias for Whiting and determined he was from Ohio.