As Ansonia police investigate two homicides from last March, they are waiting for evidence to come back from the state Forensic Science Laboratory in Meriden.
But the lab is backed up — with delays running up to four years in some cases. The crime lab is also under scrutiny by the National Institute of Justice and a new state panel.
And that has at least one Ansonia victim’s family very concerned.
“I don’t think the waiting is impacting the case as much as it’s impacting my sister’s health at this point. She’s devastated,” said Margaret Rivera, whose nephew, Isaia Hernandez, was shot and killed outside a gas station on Wakelee Avenue in March.
“She and her husband are still grieving and they want closure,” Rivera said of Hernandez’s parents, Myra and Isaia.
Rivera and her family members live out of state, but have been watching news reports over the Internet about the state crime lab.
In August, the Hartford Courant reported that the National Institute of Justice was preparing two critical audits of the Connecticut crime lab, which is run by the Connecticut Department of Public Safety.
The news prompted Gov. Dannel Malloy to form the “Crime Lab Working Group” for an emergency review of problems at the crime lab.
One of the major problems is an influx of cases for the lab to review, with fewer employees to do it.
In September, Malloy said he would fund 12 new positions at the lab to help ease the burden.
“I’ve been clear that the disarray at the State Crime Lab is unacceptable,” Malloy said in a press release.
Click here to view the website for the Crime Lab Working Group.
The Ansonia Impact
The impacts of the delays and uncertainties are felt across the state — including in Ansonia, where the police department is working to solve two back-to-back murders in March.
On March 9, Daryl Venson, 25, was shot and killed on the corner of Root Avenue and Hill Street.
A week later, Isaia Hernandez, 25, was shot and killed outside a gas station on Wakelee Avenue.
Police have said the two fatal shootings were probably not related. They are both active investigative cases, according to Lt. Andrew Cota. No arrests have been made.
As part of the investigations, the police department has sent all evidence to the state crime lab for ballistics and DNA testing. The results could determine if the guns used in the crimes were involved in previous crimes.
The DNA results could help the department zero in on suspects — and get enough proof to move forward with charges, Cota said.
“Those things we get back from the lab will only help our cases when it gets to the point that there’s an arrest made, because it can scientifically prove what we’ve investigated.”
Cota said Ansonia police have some suspects in mind, but they’re not at the point where they can bring charges to a state prosecutor. The department continues to move forward with interviews and other research on the case while it waits for the crime lab.
Waiting
A March 2011 report from the state Department of Public Safety outlined major backlogs at the crime lab. Click here to open a PDF version of the report.
The report found delays of up to four years to get forensic results on firearms.
Cases looking for DNA results could take three years for results. Computer crime and photo imaging results are backlogged more than a year, the report found.
The ballistics testing in Ansonia’s case falls under the firearms category, Cota said.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be four years before the department gets word on the testing.
“When it comes to homicides and violent offenses, those come to the top of the pile,” Cota said. “Those types of things are being given priority because of the seriousness.”
But Ansonia police do not know when they’ll get the results.
“We’ve always sent our stuff out and waited for it to come back,” Cota said.
“I can’t say if we’re waiting any longer now than before,” Cota said. “There’s always been a wait just because of the sheer volume they get in. It’s one lab for the whole state.”
Cota said the department has interviewed several people in each case, and spent “hundreds and hundreds” of hours working on the investigation.
“I see us getting arrests at some point,” Cota said. “We’ve just got to continue putting our case together.”
And Waiting
For Rivera’s family, the backlogs and questions about the efficiency of the crime lab are frustrating.
Hearing about the crime lab problems only weeks after a city alderman proposed rewards for information in the two murders has made Rivera’s family all the more upset — because they had felt like the case might have been moving forward.
“Now we’re back at square one, with nothing,” Rivera said.
They feel torn about rushing the process, though, because they want it done right, Rivera said.
“We want the people who did this to be caught, she said. “We want the testing to be done accurately and meticulously because we don’t want to find out 20 years from now that they got the wrong guy.”
But, she said, the family needs some justice to be able to move forward.
“We don’t want them to rush, but we want them to hurry up,” Rivera said.
