26-Apr-2018

TrueAllele clears West Virginia man of rape

Charles Town, WV

On April 24, 2016, a West Virginia teenager awoke to text messages from her friends. They said she’d been sexually assaulted at a party the previous night. With little recollection of the night’s events, she went to a local hospital for a rape kit examination.

The West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory tested intimate DNA swabs from the woman’s body. But their old interpretation methods could not effectively analyze complex DNA mixture data. They reported inconclusive DNA results.

Witness interviews shaped an unclear narrative of the night’s events, clouded by drug and alcohol. The police lacked hard scientific evidence.

Prosecutors charged Tyler Kennedy, 21. Daniel Kirkland, his defense attorney, contacted Cybergenetics for scientific help with the DNA mixtures. Cybergenetics forensic analysts re-analyzed the crime lab’s “inconclusive” mixture data.

Accurate and objective TrueAllele® computing found informative match statistics. Kennedy’s DNA was not found in the DNA evidence – he was statistically excluded by better science. But the computer implicated two other men at the party, finding their DNA on the intimate swabs.

On April 26, 2018, TrueAllele analyst Beatriz Pujols testified in Jefferson County court. She reported exclusionary statistics in the septillions (24 zeros after the 1), proving that Kennedy had not left his DNA in the evidence. And that others had.

The TrueAllele evidence was compelling. It supported Kennedy’s story. The jury found the defendant not guilty of sexual assault.