DNA evidence could exoneratea Westminster man charged in Carroll County?s only homicide in the last two years.
Carroll Circuit Judge Thomas F. Stansfield agreed on Monday to postpone the trial of Anthony Shawn Jones from August to October of this year, affording the state?s crime lab enough time to analyze the information.
“Whether it?s going to be useful is to be determined, but my client says he wasn?t there” at the time of the shooting, said Margaret Mead, a Baltimore attorney representing Jones.
Jones, 28, was charged with first-degree murder in the December double shooting that killed Donnie D. Bowman, 43, of Westminster, and injured Lamont Dew, 39, of Baltimore, as they sat parked outside Little Jay?s, a convenience store on Pennsylvania Avenue in Westminster.
Defense attorneys learned last month that Maryland State Police in the Forensic Sciences Division are testing blood and vomit found at the scene and expect DNA results within 30 days, Mead said.
She estimated that only about a quarter of the cases around the Baltimore region include DNA as evidence because many suspects do not leave behind any evidence worth sampling.
“All the crime scene shows are wonderful entertainment, but they aren?t reality,” said State?s Attorney Jerry Barnes, referring to “CSI” and “Law and Order,” popular law enforcement television shows, where DNA is used as evidence in almost every case.
“The misconceptions create more difficulty for prosecutors” who must present evidence to juries with expectations heightened by television, he said.
“On TV, evidence is processed and tested and returned within a space of an hour, but that?s not the way it?s done,” said Maj. Greg Shipley, state police spokesman.
In addition, crime scenes on television shows present an abundance of DNA evidence, which could mislead viewers ? and jurors. Anytime DNA is available, police and prosecutors typically request that it be sent to the crime lab for testing so whatever is useful can be used for trial, Barnes said.
State Prosecutor Clarence Beall did not respond for comment.
