Reno County judge allows new DNA testing of evidence in 2000 strangulation case

A Reno County judge Friday granted a motion for new DNA testing of evidence in the case of a Hutchinson man serving a life sentence in the 2000 strangulation death of his ex-wife.

District Judge Trish Rose found the request by Trevor Corbett met the requirements of the law and granted the motion filed on Corbett’s behalf by the Paul E. Wilson Project for Innocence and Postconviction Remedies at the University of Kansas School of Law.

Funding for the testing, which could cost tens of thousands of dollars, will be covered by the Midwest Innocence Project of Kansas City, Missouri, said attorney Elizabeth Seale Cateforis, so there will be no cost to the county or state.

Corbett was not brought back to Reno County for the hearing. But another area man convicted of murder who was exonerated by DNA testing in 2015, Floyd Bledsoe of Burrton, and members of Corbett’s family were there.

Bledsoe said he was a friend of Corbett and he asked the Midwest Innocence Project, which also assisted him, to take up Corbett’s case.

Lawrence attorney Alice Craig argued for the defense that the case always was based on circumstantial evidence, with two primary suspects, and that DNA test results added to the uncertainty.

Evidence introduced at Corbett’s 2003 trial included DNA from swabs taken from the neck of the victim, Crystal Casey, that showed a "mixed result" including an unknown male, “providing for the potential for a third suspect in the murder,” Craig said.

Prosecutors, however, contend the mixed DNA – the only traces on her neck, though Casey died from strangulation -- was likely from a glove an EMT was wearing when checking for Corbett’s pulse, which the rescuer put on before arriving at the scene and thus likely picked up random DNA by touching other objects.

DNA testing done on fingernail clippings from Casey did not exclude Corbett as a match, though they did eliminate the other suspect, ex-husband Shawn Casey, as a match.

For those tests, only six “loci markings” were examined during an initial round of testing, and 11 loci during testing by a second laboratory. Today’s testing, however, Craig said, would use 25 loci.

Craig also argued there were numerous other pieces of evidence seized that were never DNA tested.

“In the end, our goal under the statute is to test all swabs from the body – fingernails, vaginal, rectal – the clothing she was wearing at the time, bedding, and any biological evidence from the autopsy,” Craig said.

Generally, with such tests, she advised the court, they expect one of three outcomes.

“One is that we’ll get them back and they’re confirmatory to the system of justice, showing the justice system has worked,” Craig said. “Second, that there is no evidence to test or that there is nothing to find in the evidence. The third result would be that there is exculpatory evidence that might shine a light on this case. At that point, we’ll come back before your honor and find if it is sufficient evidence to give pause about the case here. We have handled all those cases. All have happened.”

Responding to a question from Rose about who pays for the testing, Craig said the evidence would go to a private lab, and that the defense would pay for it.

“One reason we do that is that is a quicker turnaround, if you use an outside lab, to get the results back,” she said.

Even then, Cateforis said after the hearing, getting results will take a year or two. In Floyd's case, the testing was estimated at $56,000, though the laboratory cut them a deal, charging only $16,000 in the end.

Reno County District Attorney Keith Schroeder argued against the motion, noting the conviction was based on significantly more evidence then the DNA introduced at trial, including a pair of eyewitnesses, Corbett’s thumbprint found on the door eyehole and statements he made to others, including a jailhouse informant.

He suggested that allowing the testing would call into question Kansas Bureau of Investigation testing protocols and contended that, while there are new test methods, that doesn’t mean they are more reliable or accurate than the tests done 15 years ago.

“You have to find there is a reasonable likelihood that it’s something that can be more accurate, and the state submits the defense has not proven that,” Schroeder said.

Craig responded the defense is not alleging that the KBI or Sedgwick County Regional Forensic Science Center, which also did testing, “did anything wrong.”

“We’re saying the DNA testing has advanced to the extent that there could be new or different results,” she said.

In granting the testing, Rose noted her ruling was “in no way altering the results” of Corbett’s conviction, that he remains convicted of first-degree murder and in prison for life.

“I’m not changing that today,” she said. “I’m simply granting the defense motion and will order that whatever material related to testing, as needed by the defense, be turned over.”

She advised the attorney’s to work out procedures for protecting or preserving the evidence.