Pet DNA to be tested in death-penalty case
Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/173569/
A police investigator delivered DNA samples taken from pets owned by a Desha County murder suspect to the University of California, Davis, last week for testing at the Veterinary Genetics Laboratory there, Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Deen said.
The suspect, Kenneth Ray Osburn, 46, is charged with kidnapping and capital murder in the Aug. 27 slaying of 17-year-old Casey Crowder of Pine Bluff. He is accused of strangling the Watson Chapel High School senior and dumping her body near a drainage canal east of Dumas. The state is seeking the death penalty in the case.
After police found Crowder’s body on Sept. 2, investigators reportedly found what they believed were dog hairs, and possibly cat hairs, on her and her clothes. Osburn owned several dogs, police said.
“I wanted those hairs analyzed,” Deen said in an interview. “I’m not going to leave any stone unturned.”
Arkansas State Police investigator Scott Woodward hand-delivered the samples to the California laboratory on Wednesday, the prosecutor said. UC-Davis houses one of the few testing sites in the country that processes forensic veterinary DNA.
Deen said he expected test results by the end of the year.
Though DNA testing is common, the possible introduction of forensic veterinary evidence in a Desha County case would be a first for the 10 th Judicial District prosecutor and his staff.
“We’ve never had an occasion to use, or attempt to use, animal DNA,” the prosecutor said.
Although Deen declined to go into detail about what Woodward took to California, records in Desha County Circuit Court in Arkansas City show that investigators collected six swabs from the cheeks of animals as well as a tape lift, which collects hairs. An affidavit for a search warrant indicates that Woodward intended to take evidence from “dogs and or cats” owned by Osburn.
A separate court record, the affidavit filed in support of Osburn’s arrest, states that surveillance cameras recorded some of the suspect’s movements on the morning of Aug. 27, about the time Crowder reportedly ran out of gas in Dumas while driving back to Pine Bluff from her boyfriend’s house.
A camera at a Sonic Drivein restaurant showed Osburn traveling south on U. S. 65 about three minutes after Crowder made a cell-phone call at 6: 39 a. m., according to the affidavit. He was driving a white 2002 Chevy Silverado.
The Sonic camera also showed Osburn driving back north about 2 minutes, 45 seconds later. A camera at the Dollar General Store on U. S. 165 recorded Osburn driving east at 6: 46 a. m., the affidavit states. Crowder’s body was found about six miles east of Dumas.
The arrest affidavit states that during a police interview on Sept. 4, officers asked Osburn to take off his shirt and lower his trousers. Investigators reported seeing numerous scratches on both his arms and “faint abrasions” on his chest, elbows and knees. Osburn told police that his dogs caused those wounds, noting that he often played with his pets. Osburn also told police that at least two of his dogs frequently rode with him in his truck.
While acknowledging that the veterinary DNA tests “could prove inconclusive,” Deen said he had dipped into his budget to pay for them and that the FBI, which helped investigate the crime, was providing additional funds.
The arrest affidavit also quotes a witness, interviewed after Crowder’s body was found, as telling state police that she had seen Osburn driving east on U. S. 165 the morning of Aug. 27 and that someone was “slumped down and laid over toward the passenger window.”
Investigators say U. S. 165 is the quickest route to a wooded area just off Buckshot Road, where the body was found. Police say Osburn was raised three miles from the scene.
According to the arrest affidavit, Osburn told police that the reason he had driven back north on U. S. 65 was to buy a pack of cigarettes at a truck stop where he had earlier drank coffee. Clerks at the truck stop, however, reportedly told investigators that Osburn did not return. Cash-register receipts did not reflect any purchase of a single pack of cigarettes about 6: 45 a. m., as Osburn claimed, according to reports.
In the charging affidavit prepared by Deen, the prosecutor accused Osburn of kidnapping Crowder “for the purpose of... engaging her in sexual intercourse, deviate sexual activity or sexual contact.” In a separate affidavit, Deen said the killing was done “in an especially depraved or cruel manner, as part of a course of conduct intended to inflict mental anguish or serious physical abuse upon the victim.”
Neither Deen nor police investigators have said how Crowder was strangled.
The FBI, the state police and the Desha County sheriff’s office conducted the investigation into Crowder’s death.
More than 100 people assisted in the six-day search for her body, which was identified by dental records.
Police arrested Osburn on Sept. 28 in McGehee. He continues to be held without bail in the Dumas city jail.
In an affidavit of indigency filed with the circuit court, Osburn states that he had $ 492 in cash, $ 300 in savings and was nearly $ 17, 000 in debt. At his initial court appearance, on Sept. 29, Osburn said he wanted to hire a private attorney. But, later, the court appointed Public Defender G. B. “Bing” Colvin of Monticello to represent him.
Colvin subsequently asked to be removed, noting that his office already was involved with four death-penalty cases. Colvin also noted that Osburn purportedly had confessed to the crime, and because of the “disclosures of certain witnesses to the alleged confession to this attorney, this attorney has become a witness.”
Colvin could not be reached for further comment.
The Arkansas Public Defender Commission appointed Little Rock attorney James Wyatt to the Osburn case, according to court documents.
Pending the completion of a mental-health evaluation, Osburn is scheduled for a circuit court appearance in Arkansas City on Nov. 27 before Circuit Judge Sam Pope. Trial dates have been tentatively set for May 1-4.