THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 13, 1997 TAG: 9701130049
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 89 lines
For Kenneth Pallett, the DNA test was his savior, proof that it was not his semen found in the victim's body.
But for Kevin Stanley Painter, DNA was the most compelling evidence that he raped and murdered Amber Marie Zajac on a wooded pathway separating two subdivisions 17 months ago, authorities say.
This week, jurors will decide whether those test results are enough to convict Painter of first-degree murder and rape and send the former Norview High School student to prison, possibly for life.
As the O.J. Simpson case showed nationally and at least one rape case in Virginia Beach showed locally, DNA evidence by itself is not always enough to assure a conviction.
It is, however, enough to prove someone's innocence.
Pallett is a free man because of the same analysis of human chromosomes that threatens to put Painter away for life. His trial begins today in Circuit Court.
Police first charged Pallett with the murder of Zajac, 17, and then withdrew the charges when a DNA test ordered by Virginia Beach police and performed by the state forensics lab eliminated him as a suspect.
That was even though Pallett confessed to the crime during a confused, rambling 11-hour interview with police on Aug. 8, 1995, hours after Zajac's body was found in a wooded area near the Derby Run subdivision.
Zajac was pronounced dead at the scene. Her body was discovered by her father and his girlfriend early in the morning of Aug. 8 when she failed to return from her job.
During an autopsy, the medical examiner determined that Zajac, a summer-school student at Kellam High School, died of strangulation from hand and ligature pressure around the neck. There also was evidence that she had been raped.
Pallett, an unemployed surfer who lived in a trailer near the murder scene, offered to help police with their investigation. But during his videoptaped interview, which was punctuated by sobbing and claims by Pallett that he was having conversations with God, Pallett changed his story numerous times.
At one point he claimed that he served as a lookout while a crack dealer named ``Toothless'' had sex with Zajac in the woods where the teenager was killed.
Pallett also told police that he had a confrontation with Zajac near a neighborhood 7-Eleven store earlier in the evening and later discovered her body, and what he thought was the rope used to strangle her.
He told police that when he found the rope, he said to himself, ``if this is the murder weapon, I'm in deep s---.''
He later told the police interviewer that God told him to confess.
Pallett was taken into custody. But he was released when DNA analysis of his blood and hair proved that the semen found at the scene was not his.
Painter, who was 17 at the time of the murder, was first interviewed by police on Aug. 17 at his job at the Golden Corral restaurant on General Booth Boulevard.
During that interview, Painter admitted that he had spoken to Zajac on the night of her death, but that he knew nothing about how she died. He also refused to allow police to obtain hair samples and blood for DNA testing.
On Jan. 11, 1996, police arrested Painter at Norfolk Vocational Technical School. During an interview after his arrest, Painter admitted that he had sex with Zajac on the night of her murder, but did not know how she died.
Painter told police that after he had sex with Zajac, he saw a white male drinking a beer near the location where Zajac's body was found.
When DNA tests were done, Painter could not be eliminated as a suspect. According to George Li, who testified for the state forensics lab at Painter's preliminary hearing, there is only a 1 in 600 billion chance that Painter is not the person whose semen was found at the scene.
At a March 28, 1996, transfer hearing, Judge Woodrow Lewis Jr. transferred the case from juvenile court to Circuit Court so Painter could be tried as an adult.
Police have other evidence they say throws Painter's story into doubt. He told police that Zajac got dressed after their sexual encounter, yet no evidence of semen was found on Zajac's clothing. She was found naked from the waist down.
If Painter is not convicted, it would be the second DNA case in Virginia Beach to end in an unsuccessful prosecution in less than a year.
On June 28, prosecutors could not convict Kerri Charity, the infamous North End rapist, of raping a jogger in Seashore State Park despite having DNA evidence they believed tied him to the crime.
A forensic specialist testified in that case that there was less than a 1 in 13 billion chance that someone other than Charity was the rapist.
Four jurors, however, were unconvinced, and voted to acquit Charity, causing a hung jury and forcing the mistrial.
Charity, a former Norfolk State University student, will be retried. He has been convicted of four other rapes and has been sentenced to seven life terms in prison plus 80 years. ILLUSTRATION: Amber Marie Zajac
KEYWORDS: RAPE MURDER TRIAL