LITTLE ROCK — A single tiny hair discovered on Little Rock TV news anchor Anne Pressly’s bed belongs to the man accused of killing her “within all scientific certainty,” a state DNA examiner testified Friday during the third day of testimony in Curtis Lavelle Vance’s capital-murder trial in Pulaski County Circuit Court. DNA evidence found on the back of her broken left hand also points to Vance, but is not as conclusive, another examiner said.

Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley is seeking the death penalty for the 29-year-old Marianna man who is also charged with rape, residential burglary and theft over Pressly’s October 2008 beating death at her Heights home. She died five days after her mother found her in bed unconscious, beaten and disfigured.

Vance’s defense attorneys have called into question police handling of evidence, suggesting that investigators overlooked other suspects and disregarded evidence that pointed to others. Defense attorneys also implied that Vance was incriminated through sloppy handling of DNA evidence.

Friday’s proceedings revolved around evidence processed by the Arkansas Crime Laboratory, but also marked the first time that authorities have detailed the exact DNA evidence against Vance and where it was found.

Police collected eight samples of hair from Pressly’s bedding and clothes, but only one hair had a root, making it suitable for DNA testing, said Lisa Channell, the lab’s chief criminologist.

The first of three Crime Lab witnesses to testify, Channell told the jury of six men and six women that she analyzed the hair evidence, results of a rape examination of Pressly and the bloodstained bedding as part of her duties as the agency’s top evidence examiner.

The hair, likely a pubic hair, was sent to the lab’s DNA examiners, Channell said.

Other hair samples found on the bedding and robe are “microscopically similar” to Vance’s, Channell said, describing how she compared evidence with known samples of Vance’s hair collected after his arrest.

“All of the characteristics I looked at - I found those same characteristics in the known sample,” said Channell, who testified for a little more than two hours.

But those findings are as conclusive as Channell can reach, she testified, saying they were confirmed by another analyst.

She told chief deputy prosecutor John Johnson that her examination couldn’t rule out that the shorter and darker hairs collected by investigators were Vance’s.

“I could not exclude Mr. Vance as the contributor,” she said.

Questioned by the defense, Channell acknowledged the hair-examination process can’t provide a definitive match like DNA can.

“Is there any way you can tell these jurors those are Curtis Vance’s hairs,” defense attorney Katherine Streett asked.

“No, I cannot,” Channell replied.

Chemical tests she ran on Pressly’s bedding and clothing indicated the presence of semen, she told jurors, but she didn’t run more conclusive tests after definitively finding semen on materials collected during Pressly’s rape exam. Channell said her findings suggested that Pressly had been sodomized by her attacker, but none of the tests found DNA.

Questioned by Streett, Channell said the positive tests on the fabric might also be from some other type of bodily fluid and that none of the testing conclusively linked the fluids to Vance.

Testimony that Vance’s DNA has been matched to the single hair came from the Crime Lab’s chief forensic DNA examiner, Melissa Myhand. She testified the match was “within all scientific certainty,” with the chances that the hair came from someone else are one in 1.5 quadrillion, which is about 220,588 times the population of the planet.

Asked about the possibility that her findings could be the results of contamination, Myhand replied, “In this case, absolutely not possible.”

Vance was incriminated in Pressly’s slaying by DNA collected from an April 2008 rape in Marianna, and Myhand testified she reviewedhow examiners handled evidence in that case to make sure Marianna evidence couldn’t have tainted the Pressly case. She said DNA extraction in the Marianna rape case wasn’t started until about a week after she finished her examination.

“[The Marianna evidence] had not even been brought out from our ... secured storage,” she testified during her 80 minutes on the witness stand.

Questioned by Streett about other DNA evidence, Myhand testified that DNA found on Pressly’s quilt was definitely not Vance’s. Nail scrapings collected from Pressly the day she died also turned up DNA that didn’t belong to Vance, a finding prosecutors shrugged off as possible contamination from a nurse or doctor who treated Pressly in the five days before her death.

Mary Robinette, a forensic DNA examiner who manages the Crime Lab’s DNA database, told jurors that specialized DNA testing that targets the male-exclusive Y chromosome showed that DNA collected from the back of Pressly’s broken left hand belonged either to Vance or someone in his male lineage.

“The DNA profiles match - not within all scientific certainty - but they do match,” she said.

The test is more sensitive than traditional DNA testing, which examines both the Y and X chromosomes, Robinette told jurors, but it is not as definitive since it detects only the Y chromosome. Robinette said the less conclusive testing could guarantee only that the evidence came from someone who shares the same male lineage as Vance.

“You have no idea who could be walking around with that DNA?” Streett asked.

“No, it’s not unique,” Robinette said.

Robinette’s testing also found DNA from at least three males on Pressly’s bedsheet and her underwear that don’t belong to Vance. She told Johnson, the prosecutor, that the Y-chromosome DNA is so easily transferred that those findings could reflect genetic material left behind by police and rescue workers who ministered to Pressly when she was found.

Presiding Judge Chris Piazza adjourned the proceedings about 2:30 p.m. on Friday, saying jurors had been through a lot with jury selection and hearing evidence.

Proceedings will resume at 9:30 a.m. Monday with testimony from Little Rock detectives J.C. White and Tommy Hudson about Vance’s November 2008 arrest. Prosecutors are expected to play two incriminating recorded statements from Vance for the Pulaski County jury on Monday, and they could wrap up their case by Tuesday.

Piazza reminded jurors of their oath not to discuss the case, suggesting they focus more on the prospects of the University of Arkansas Razorbacks over the weekend.

“We’ve all been through the ringer,” he said. “You’ve had a long week.”

Front Section, Pages 1 on 11/07/2009

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.