29-Jan-2024

California crime lab is the first to bring NGS technology to court

DA Cynthia Zimmer

This month in California, a Kern County Jury found Adrian Chavez guilty of the First-Degree Murders of Marilyn Cuervo and Crystal Hernandez. This case marked the first time Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) DNA testing was introduced as evidence in a jury trial in the United States.

Over ten years ago, Kern Regional Crime Lab (KRCL) became the first accredited crime laboratory in the world to introduce automated computer interpretation of complex DNA evidence into forensic casework. The KRCL began using Cybergenetics' revolutionary TrueAllele technology. TrueAllele routinely solved previously "impossible" DNA evidence. Working with Cybergenetics, the KRCL validated TrueAllele for five-person mixtures.

The pioneering KRCL has now validated and implemented Verogen’s MiSeq FGx Sequencing System for in-house Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) testing. Following an extensive pre-trial admissibility hearing, the trial court deemed NGS to be reliable and that the technique has gained general acceptance in the scientific field. NGS was used in the Chavez case to establish the location of a murder crime scene, and help determine how a violent assault happened.

District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer commented on the conviction; “Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) is a groundbreaking advancement in DNA evidence testing. I’m proud of our Kern Regional Crime Lab for pioneering this state-of-the-art method and introducing it for the first time in a U.S. trial. This technology is a game-changer for solving crimes, as the extensive information it provides will lead us to even more significant discoveries.”

The KRCL has validated TrueAllele for using NGS on DNA mixtures.