THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997 TAG: 9701090330
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF REPORT
LENGTH: 37 lines
For the first time in Virginia, police say they have made an arrest in a slaying after a routine computer search of the state's DNA database. It also is one of the first in the country.
On Wednesday, Petersburg police announced an arrest in the 1994 murder of Hope Denise Hall, a 22-year-old TV news producer who had recently graduated from Virginia State University.
Hall, whose family lives in Virginia Beach, was a part-time associate producer at WWBT-TV 12 in Richmond. Her body was found July 11, 1994, in her Petersburg apartment.
One suspect was charged three months after the killing, but charges were withdrawn a few months later. His lawyer said forensic tests on the suspect's hair, blood, saliva and fingerprints did not link him to the killing.
Now police have made an arrest based on a DNA match of the suspect's blood with semen found at the crime scene. The match was a ``cold hit,'' meaning there was no suspect and the DNA match was made by computer, comparing semen at the crime scene with 9,000 DNA profiles in the state's database.
It is the first slaying investigation marked by a ``cold hit'' in Virginia, and among the first in the country, said Dr. Paul B. Ferrara, director of the state Division of Forensic Science. There have been three or four others nationwide, Ferrara said.
Virginia leads the country in crimes cracked by ``cold hit'' DNA matches. To date, 18 rape cases have been solved in Virginia this way, including 12 last year.
In the Hall killing in Petersburg, police arrested Shermaine Ali Johnson, 19, and charged him with capital murder and rape. He was acquainted with the victim, but police did not release a motive. Johnson is serving a prison sentence for a rape conviction in Franklin.
KEYWORDS: RAPE MURDER ARREST DNA DATABASE