The state's Department of Justice crime-scene evidence labs, including one in Ripon, have eliminated the backlog of untested evidence that had slowed DNA analysis in recent years, but not any longer.
The labs now will be able to conduct routine analysis within 30 days, down from an average of 90 to 120 days, state officials announced Wednesday. It's the first time the state's crime labs have eliminated their backlog of untested DNA evidence.
"DNA testing is a powerful law enforcement resource — a smart-on-crime tool that we're using in cutting edge ways in California," said state Attorney General Kamala Harris.
"Public safety is too important not to embrace innovation and adopt technology where needed," Harris said. "Crime-scene evidence is too important to sit unanalyzed for months, while the victims await justice."
DNA evidence analyzed at the Ripon crime lab has played a key role in recent high profile murder cases in Stanislaus County, including a 32-year-old slaying investigation that was the county's oldest cold case. It ended in an arrest and a conviction late last year.
Florence Millard, 81, was found beaten and raped inside her west Modesto home in August 1976. She died from her injuries 13 days later. The investigation went cold with no suspects or arrests until 2009.
A rug from her home remained stored for more than 30 years until Modesto police Detective Craig Grogan reviewed the investigation and decided to submit the evidence for DNA analysis.
Department of Justice criminalists matched semen found on a rug with a a DNA sample from Buddy Ray Gary, who had two convictions for rape and was serving 25 years to life in prison for felony assault. Gary was arrested, and in August he was convicted of first-degree murder in Millard's death.
The state's crime lab in Ripon, however, came under scrutiny in September 2010 when one of its former analysts was arrested on suspicion of skimming methamphetamine and cocaine stashes seized from accused criminals. The 4½-month investigation into drug tampering did not involve the DNA analysis.
The attorney general made DNA testing a priority in 2011, because of what she called a direct link between timely investigations and successful prosecutions.
The crime labs were encouraged to improve procedures, and new technology was introduced to speed up the analysis process. Using robotics, an extraction method in sexual assault evidence analysis that once took two days now takes two hours, according to the attorney general's office.
In 2011, the state's Bureau of Forensic Services analyzed 5,400 evidence samples, which was an 11 percent increase from the 4,800 samples tested in 2010 and a 24 percent increase from 4,100 samples tested in 2009.
State law requires all prison inmates to submit DNA samples, which then are submitted to a statewide database. Any DNA evidence submitted to the crime labs for analysis also is submitted to the database.
A "hit" occurs when DNA evidence from an unsolved crime matches evidence in another case or the DNA sample of a convicted offender.
The Bureau of Forensic Services operates 13 regional laboratories, seven of which perform DNA testing of biological evidence to assist police agencies in 47 of the 58 counties throughout the state. The DNA labs are in Ripon, Fresno, Redding, Riverside, Sacramento, Santa Barbara and Richmond.
The state's DNA database contains the DNA samples of 1.8 million offenders in California, as well as crime-scene evidence. It is the largest working DNA database in the United States and the fourth- largest in the world, according to the attorney general's office.
Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or (209) 578-2394.
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