by Deanna Boyd, Star Telegram, June 28, 2011
Seven times, fingerprints found on duct tape that had been wrapped around Sandra Martin's body were submitted into a fingerprint database with hopes of identifying the Fort Worth woman's killer.
Seven times, the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, or AFIS, yielded no match.
But in 2009, after the latest negative result and more than 22 years after Martin's slaying, then-cold case Detective Jose Hernandez had an idea.
Recalling his first homicide case, Hernandez said investigators were successful in finding a database match only after someone sent the prints directly to the Department of Public Safety headquarters in Austin.
So Hernandez decided to hand-deliver photographs of the prints himself.
"I decided on this case, why not?" Hernandez testified Tuesday. "Just take it to Austin, to the same laboratory, and see if there's any success."
Weeks later, he received word of a match and a name -- Jay Thayer Williams -- a Dallas Realtor now standing trial in a capital murder case in connection with Martin's Sept. 22, 1986, slaying.
Williams, now 66, is accused of fatally shooting Martin, 27, while in the course of attempting to sexually assault the mother of two inside her southwest Fort Worth home. Martin's two children, then ages 2 and 5, were at home when their mother was killed.
Because prosecutors Kevin Rousseau and Tamla Ray are not seeking the death penalty in the case, if convicted, Williams would automatically be sentenced to life in prison.
In cross-examination, defense attorney Jim Shaw questioned Hernandez on how prints that had recently been deemed not of "AFIS quality" by the Police Department's fingerprint "guru" -- and that had been entered into the AFIS system seven times without success-- could suddenly yield a match.
"The AFIS process involves different stages, different people who enter the information into the system," Hernandez answered.
"If the system is not entered in a precise manner, there could be difficulty in making an identity."
Shaw suggested that the AFIS process is "subjective" and that the fingerprints had been manipulated.
The trial is scheduled to continue today.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
Private Investigator Finds Homeless Man and Heir to Fortune
Written by Amy Joi O'Donoghue, Deseret News, Salt Lake City
A combination of old-fashion private eye pavement pounding and media attention has helped to locate a homeless man who unknowingly inherited a significant sum of money.
David Lundberg, a private investigator and founder of UtahDetective.com, was retained by the family of Max Melitzer after the wanderer inherited a chunk of change that could give him safe haven for the rest of his life.
Melitzer's family lost contact with him in September of 2010 and had to hire the services of an investigator to track him down after he came into his inheritance.
Melitzer has been on the streets for years, floating between Salt Lake City and Ogden and becoming somewhat of a fixture among social service providers such as the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake City.
It was there that Lundberg talked with the mission's house manager, Don Hill, and the quest to locate Melitzer took a turn for the positive.
Hill said Melitzer frequently stays at the mission when he is not venturing north to Ogden.
Based on a tip from a KSL listener, Lundberg said Saturday he found Melitzer at Salt Lake's Pioneer Park, where the homeless man was pushing a large grocery cart stuffed with his personal belongings.
Lundberg got on the phone, called Melitzer's relatives in New York and handed the phone to the man.
"I think he was happy to be finally able to connect with his family in New York."
Lundberg said the man has had a rough stretch of bad luck recently.
"He was beat up. His money was taken. His watch was taken. He's been in kind of a surly element the last couple of years."
Lundberg found Melitzer a safe place to stay until his family arrives midweek from New York.
"I want to make sure we get him back to New York, hopefully with his family. Get him in a situation where he has a decent place to live, food, pay his medical costs. He can get on with his life and enjoy himself for a change."
A combination of old-fashion private eye pavement pounding and media attention has helped to locate a homeless man who unknowingly inherited a significant sum of money.
David Lundberg, a private investigator and founder of UtahDetective.com, was retained by the family of Max Melitzer after the wanderer inherited a chunk of change that could give him safe haven for the rest of his life.
Melitzer's family lost contact with him in September of 2010 and had to hire the services of an investigator to track him down after he came into his inheritance.
Melitzer has been on the streets for years, floating between Salt Lake City and Ogden and becoming somewhat of a fixture among social service providers such as the Rescue Mission of Salt Lake City.
It was there that Lundberg talked with the mission's house manager, Don Hill, and the quest to locate Melitzer took a turn for the positive.
Hill said Melitzer frequently stays at the mission when he is not venturing north to Ogden.
Based on a tip from a KSL listener, Lundberg said Saturday he found Melitzer at Salt Lake's Pioneer Park, where the homeless man was pushing a large grocery cart stuffed with his personal belongings.
Lundberg got on the phone, called Melitzer's relatives in New York and handed the phone to the man.
"I think he was happy to be finally able to connect with his family in New York."
Lundberg said the man has had a rough stretch of bad luck recently.
"He was beat up. His money was taken. His watch was taken. He's been in kind of a surly element the last couple of years."
Lundberg found Melitzer a safe place to stay until his family arrives midweek from New York.
"I want to make sure we get him back to New York, hopefully with his family. Get him in a situation where he has a decent place to live, food, pay his medical costs. He can get on with his life and enjoy himself for a change."
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