The validity of DNA evidence from a Thruway toll ticket allegedly handled by Christopher Porco was called into question by attorneys handling the case for the murder suspect.
Dr. Terry Melton, DNA expert and founder of Mitotyping Technology of State College, Pa., said the toll ticket she extracted for DNA partially matched an unknown sample of DNA given to her by authorities.
The only one that DNA matched with those 85 base pairs is sitting right here and that’s Christopher Porco, is that correct? asked Assistant District Attorney David Rossi firmly.
`Yes,` said Melton.
The DNA swab tested was analyzed through an FBI database of 4,839 samples, and her company concluded that 99.61 percent of the names in the North American database would not be expected to have the same DNA profile as that of the individual whose DNA was left on the toll ticket.
`Less than .039 percent of North Americans have that same base profile,` Melton testified.
Much of the company’s scientific research is based on complex statistical analysis. Melton did not rule out the possibility that the DNA on the toll ticket could be someone’s other than Christopher Porco’s.
Defense Attorney Terence Kindlon called Melton’s assessments nothing more than a magic act.
`I feel like we are in the room with the sorcerer’s apprentice,` said Kindlon while the jury was not present.
Eight other individuals DNA along with Christopher Porco’s DNA were tested to see if there were other partial or full matches from the same toll ticket tested. None of the eight matched, but Kindlon pointed out to the jury that five of those eight results were inconclusive.
`Is it true you were not able to exclude five others in the testing?` Kindlon asked.
`We had inclusive results,` Melton responded.
`You were not able to exclude them, were you?` Kindlon repeated.
Melton said she could not. Kindlon asked if Melton could positively state that the DNA on the toll ticket was Christopher Porco’s.
`We cannot say for sure that the DNA on that toll ticket is Mr. Porco’s,` said Melton. `We just cannot exclude him.`
Jurors and courtroom observers received a 30-minute primer on mitochondria DNA and its use in population genetics and in the study of evolution from the prosecution’s expert witness.
Melton’s most famous case as a graduate student was to determine if a woman who claimed she survived the 1918 Bolshevik revolution was indeed the grand duchess and daughter of Nicholas II Anastasia.
`I tested her hair after she died,` said Melton. `It was a very exciting case, and I was able to show she was not Anastasia.`
That research did not stop Kindlon from continuing his hard line of questioning of the prosecution’s DNA expert witness to show jurors the findings are nothing but pure speculation. At one point, Kindlon and Melton spent close to 15 minutes discussing scientific findings and referencing them through a series of several digit numbers that had courtroom observers confused.
`I am going to object to any more testimony from this witness,` said Kindlon.
Judge Jeffrey Berry, who is presiding over the Porco murder trial in Orange County Court, denied the motion.
Kindlon reminded jurors that when she tested one of the samples she had no idea it belonged to the murder suspect.
`In fact, you have never seen Christopher Porco before this trial,` stated Kindlon.
The defense pressure to crumble a crucial piece of potential physical evidence linking the suspect to the crime continued through the late afternoon hours when Kindlon cited examples of casework contamination in the company’s Pennsylvania lab.
`In September 2003, there was a contamination of a casework sample by your technician in your lab,` Kindlon said. He added that Melton herself did not perform the test on the Porco toll ticket.
`I have a very highly trained staff that does my lab work,` said Melton. Kindlon explained to jurors the reason why Dr. Melton formed her private DNA research company.
`You were making $30,000 a year at the university and you hoped to make more money by opening up this laboratory,` Kindlon said.
Melton told Kindlon the prosecution will be receiving a bill for over $22,000 for her expert testimony and research.
`Clearly the evidence was bought and paid for,` Kindlon told media covering the Porco trial. `The DNA testimony was not very impressive.`
Prosecutor Michael McDermott said the toll ticket evidence is just another piece of the puzzle.
`She is not saying 100 percent it is Christopher Porco’s DNA on the toll ticket, but she is saying there is a 99.61 percent probability,` McDermott said.
The prosecution is trying to convince jurors that Christopher Porco drove from the University of Rochester campus late Sunday evening Nov. 14, 2004, and traveled over 200 miles on the state Thruway to Delmar where he arrived at 36 Brockley Drive between 2 and 5 a.m. to attack his parents Peter and Joan Porco inside their home.
The toll ticket tested is alleged to be one of the tickets Porco used on his travels back and forth from Exit 24 in Albany to Exit 46 in Henrietta to commit the crime that murdered his father and severely injured his mother. He is on trial for the murder of his father and attempted murder of his mother.
The defense is expected to begin its case to prove Porco’s innocence on Wednesday, Aug. 2.
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