Opinion ID: 2230718
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Initial Investigation and Conviction

Text: On May 20, 1984, Virginia Golden found her mother, Agnes Fafrowicz, dead in the living room of Fafrowicz's apartment. Investigators determined that Fafrowicz had been robbed and sexually assaulted by an intruder and died from a resulting heart attack on May 16. Fluid samples were taken from Fafrowicz and sperm was detected. On May 22, police learned that two checks had been drawn on Fafrowicz's account. One check, dated May 17, was made out to Bill Vollmar-Bailey for $230 and had been cashed at a liquor store next to Bailey's apartment building. Upon arrest and interrogation, Bailey explained that Fafrowicz wrote the check to him for work he did on her lawn and car. Detectives found Bailey's story implausible for many reasons, chief among them Bailey's claim that Fafrowicz gave him the check on May 18 when she almost certainly died on May 16. Bailey was charged with first-degree murder while committing criminal sexual conduct and indicted on June 6, 1984. About six months later, the state dismissed the indictment due to its likely inability to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. The state reopened the case in 2000 and obtained from the Medical Examiner's Office two slides containing the samples taken from Fafrowicz's body during the autopsy. Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) scientist Catherine Knutson used a Profiler Plus kit to test the samples against a blood sample taken from Bailey during the 1984 investigation. To remove the cover slips from the slides, Knutson heated the slides with a Bunsen burner until the mounting medium began to boil, loosening the slips. A vaginal sample yielded interpretable DNA results at six of the ten tested loci. [1] The resulting profile matched the DNA from Bailey's blood sample. With this evidence, the state again charged Bailey with first-degree murder while committing criminal sexual conduct. He was indicted, tried, and found guilty in 2002. Bailey appealed his conviction and we reversed and remanded for a new trial. State v. Bailey (Bailey I), 677 N.W.2d 380, 385 (Minn.2004). We held that certain statements Bailey made prior to his Miranda warning were admitted in error. We also held that the district court's findings on the reliability of using a Bunsen burner on a DNA sample were insufficient to satisfy the second prong of the Frye-Mack standard [2] and justify the admission of the DNA test.