Opinion ID: 1390030
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: DNA Evidence Establishes Petitioner's Guilt

Text: Subsequent to the passage of California Penal Code section 1405, the California authorities agreed to have certain DNA testing performed in 2001. Petitioner had the assistance of two nationally recognized DNA experts, Dr. Edward Blake and Christopher Plourd. The parties entered into a Joint Forensic DNA Testing Agreement that specified the items of evidence to be tested, how they were to be shipped and the method of DNA testing. ( See Joint DNA Agreement dated May 10, 2001.) Pursuant to the Joint DNA Agreement, the evidence to be tested was shipped to the DOJ DNA Laboratory in Berkeley from two locations: the San Diego Superior Court and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Identification Division. (92-CV-427, Third Supplemental NOL filed Jan. 23, 2004, Ex. No. 33, Judge Kennedy Order dated May 10, 2001.) The items shipped from the custody of the San Diego Superior Court, Evidence Clerk, were: a hand-rolled cigarette butt recovered from the Ryen station wagon in Long Beach (Trial Exhibit 584A) (Laboratory item no. V-12); a hatchet (Trial Exhibit 42); the major portion of a T-shirt found near the Canyon Corral Bar (Trial Exhibit 169) (Laboratory Item CC); and a button found in the hideout house bedroom (Trial Exhibit 97). ( Id. ) The remaining items to be tested were shipped by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Identification Division. Those items were: a manufactured cigarette butt (Laboratory item no. V-17), found in the Ryen station wagon in Long Beach; the cutout portion from the same T-shirt (Trial Exhibit 169), which remained in the custody of the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Identification Division following Petitioner's trial; hair recovered from the hands of the victims; the remains of bloodstain A-41 (the drop of blood found in the hallway outside the Ryen master bedroom); and the reference hair and blood samples from Petitioner and the victims. (Joint DNA Agreement dated May 10, 2001 at 2-5.) The Agreement provided for STR Profiler Plus DNA testing to be performed by DOJ Berkeley on the specified items of evidence in two stages: blind STR Profiler Plus DNA testing was to be performed on specified pieces of crime scene evidence, followed by STR Profiler Plus DNA testing on the known exemplars from Petitioner and the victims. ( Id. at 11.) The blind test results from the crime scene evidence would then be compared with the results obtained from the known reference samples from Petitioner and the victims. ( Id. at 11-12.) STR DNA testing is a forensic DNA testing method that is generally accepted within the relevant scientific community for forensic testing of biological specimens. ( Id. at 6.) The results are summarized in the Physical Evidence Examination Report dated July 7, 2002, and in the Supplemental Report dated September 24, 2002. (DOJ Physical Evidence Exam Report dated July 2, 2002; Supplemental DOJ Physical Evidence Exam Report dated Sept. 24, 2002.) The DNA testing that was done provides the most probative evidence of the identity of the murderer. In his July 24, 2001 report, Petitioner's own DNA expert, Dr. Edward T. Blake, stated that the most relevant biological evidence in this case is contained within the blood and cigarette butt evidence described above. (92-CV-427, Third Supplemental NOL filed Jan. 23, 2004, Ex. 24, Dr. Blake Letter dated July 24, 2001 at 4.) Dr. Blake had been one of the defense experts on Petitioner's defense team prior to trial, at trial and during the post-conviction DNA testing procedure. The Supplemental Report concludes that the DNA testing provides strong evidence that Petitioner is the donor of the DNA extracted from: the drop of blood found in the hallway outside the Ryen master bedroom (A-41), saliva from the hand-rolled and manufactured cigarette butts found inside the abandoned Ryen station wagon, and blood smears on the T-shirt found near the Canyon Corral Bar. (Supplemental DOJ Physical Evidence Exam Report dated Sept. 24, 2002.) Petitioner's DNA profile is consistent with the DNA profiles obtained from each of those items of evidence. ( Id. ) The DNA profiles that do not match Petitioner are all consistent with the victims' DNA profiles. The testing did not reveal any unidentified DNA profiles. ( Id. ) The STR Profiler Plus DNA result obtained from A-41, the bloodstain found on the hallway wall outside the Ryen master bedroom, has been determined to match Petitioner's DNA profile. (Supplemental DOJ Physical Evidence Exam Report dated Sept. 24, 2002 at 1-2.) The probability of a random match is approximately 1 in 310 billion for African Americans, 1 in 270 billion for Caucasians, and 1 in 340 billion for Western Hispanics. ( Id. ) The evidentiary significance of this result is twofold. First, at trial Petitioner testified at length and he denied ever approaching the Ryen house. Cooper, 53 Cal.3d at 802, 281 Cal.Rptr. 90, 809 P.2d 865. Second, the presence of Petitioner's blood inside the Ryen home confirms that Petitioner was inside the Ryen house, in the middle of the crime scene. The STR Profiler Plus DNA also showed that Petitioner's DNA was found on two cigarettes butts found in the Ryen station wagon. The probability estimates for the manufactured cigarette butt, item V-17, was 1 in 19 billion and for the hand rolled cigarette butt, item DOJ-5, was 1 in 110 million. ( Id. at 2.) The STR Profiler Plus DNA results from both cigarette butts that were recovered from the Ryen station wagon in Long Beach also has particular significance when considered with the other evidence introduced at trial. The DNA results from the cigarette butts establish that Petitioner took the Ryen station wagon to make his escape after committing the murders. There was a massive manhunt for Petitioner after he escaped from Chino, and there was evidence at trial that shortly prior to committing the murders Petitioner had made telephone calls from the hideout house in an unsuccessful attempt to get help so he could escape from the Chino Hills. Cooper, 53 Cal.3d at 796, 281 Cal.Rptr. 90, 809 P.2d 865. The DNA results obtained from the two cigarette butts fortify the conclusion stated by the California Supreme Court that Petitioner had an obvious motive both for stealing the Ryen car  to get transportation away from the area  and for killing the family  to facilitate the theft and gain time to perfect his escape. Id. at 771, 832, 281 Cal.Rptr. 90, 809 P.2d 865. Similarly, the STR Profiler Plus DNA results obtained from the T-shirt found by the roadway leading from the Ryen house to the nearest freeway link Petitioner to the crime. Blood on the cutout portion of the T-shirt (DOJ item CC-1B) matches Doug Ryen's blood. (Supplemental DOJ Physical Evidence Exam Report dated Sept. 24, 2002 at 3.) In addition, several blood smears/spatters found during the course of the STR Profiler Plus testing match Petitioner's DNA profile. (Supplemental DOJ Physical Evidence Exam Report dated Sept. 24, 2002 at 3.) These blood smears/spatters, from which DNA profiles matching Petitioner were obtained, were found on Trial Exhibit 169 (Laboratory Item CC), the portion of the T-shirt which remained in the custody of the San Diego Superior Court Evidence Clerk, since the time of Petitioner's trial in 1984 and 1985 prior to the post-conviction DNA testing. (92-CV-427, NOL filed Jan. 20, 2004, Ex. 6, Judge Kennedy's order dated July 2, 2003 at 10.) The state court conducted a post-conviction evidentiary hearing in 2003 to address, among other items, Petitioner's claim of evidence tampering. The Honorable William H. Kennedy concluded that there was no merit to Petitioner's claim of evidence tampering. (92-CV-427, NOL filed Jan. 20, 2004, Ex. 6, Judge Kennedy's order dated July 2, 2003 at 10.) The T-shirt was found by the side of a road which connected the Ryen home with a freeway system that eventually leads to Long Beach, where the Ryen station wagon was found abandoned. The STR Profiler Plus DNA results from this T-shirt establish the presence of Petitioner's and victim Doug Ryen's blood on the same article of clothing. The DNA results provide additional evidence establishing Petitioner's guilt. In sum, this Court concludes that the DNA test results obtained from the evidence presented at trial establish Petitioner's guilt. ( See Supplemental DOJ Physical Evidence Exam Report dated Sept. 24, 2002 at 3.)