| Crime |
On April 12, 2010, Brett Wentworth (41) was found dead in his Wendell Avenue apartment in Schenectady. |
| Evidence |
Wentworth was strangled with a cord from a guitar amplifier. There had been a struggle, so biological evidence was collected from the victim's shirt collar and forearm. |
| DNA |
The New York State Police crime lab examined DNA from the amp cord, shirt collar, forearm, and many other items. |
| Match |
The crime lab's subjective interpretation of the DNA mixture data did not produce meaningful match statistics to defendant John Wakefield. |
| TrueAllele |
Separating the mixtures, TrueAllele® found that a match between the amp cord and Wakefield was 5.9 billion times more probable than coincidence. TrueAllele also linked Wakefield to the shirt collar (170 quintillion) and forearm (56 million). |
| Cybergenetics |
TrueAllele was admitted into evidence after a Frye hearing in October of 2014. In March, Dr. Mark Perlin testified at the trial about DNA match statistics connecting Wakefield to the crime. |
| Outcome |
On March 20, 2015, a Schenectady jury convicted Wakefield of murdering Brent Wentworth. In May, Wakefield was sentenced to life in prison without parole. |
