| Crime |
On April 10, 2014, Lee Williams was shot in the chest at his
Hawkins Village home in Rankin, PA during an attempted
robbery. |
| Evidence |
Two firearms used during the murder were recovered. |
| DNA |
The Allegheny County crime lab produced data from DNA found on the guns. The lab found that four or more individuals contributed DNA to both firearms. |
| Match |
The mixture data was too complex for the crime lab’s manual interpretation methods, meaning they could not produce match statistics. |
| TrueAllele |
On the same DNA data, the computer’s statistic connecting one
of the pistols with Mr. Knight was 17.3 thousand. |
| Cybergenetics |
On August 24, 2016, Jennifer Hornyak and Dr. Mark Perlin testified at the trial in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania about the computer DNA match statistic. |
| Outcome |
On August 26, 2016, Mr. Knight was found guilty of second-degree murder, burglary, and three counts of reckless endangerment. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. |
