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Judge orders tests on bloody T-shirtSAN DIEGO (AP) - A T-shirt discovered near the scene of the 1983 hatchet murders of four people and stained with the blood of death row inmate Kevin Cooper will be tested for a blood preservative to determine whether law enforcement officials tampered with it.Despite prosecutors’ objections, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Huff ruled Friday that the test should proceed. The blood preservative EDTA is used in police crime labs to preserve blood samples.Cooper, who was convictedof the murders of three members of a Chino Hills family and their 10-year-old house guest, claims police planted his blood on the shirt long after the murders in an attempt to frame him.DNA tests in 2001 determined the T-shirt was smeared with blood from Cooper and one of the victims.The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which issued a stay of execution on Feb. 9, had urged Huff to order the test of the shirt.Holly Wilkens, the deputy attorney general handling Cooper’s case, has called EDTA testing “junk science.”Cooper’s attempts to escape his sentence suffered a setback last week when results of court-ordered DNA tests on hairs found on the victims revealed they probably belonged to the victims, undermining Cooper’s theory that other people committed the murder.Defense attorneys contend that three white men — who were seen in a local bar around the time of the slayings but never identified — committed the murders.Cooper was sentenced to die in 1985 for killing Douglas and Peggy Ryen, their 11-year-old daughter, Jessica,and 10-year-old friend Christopher Hughes, who was sleeping over at the Ryens’ Chino Hills home.Eight-year-old Joshua Ryen had his throat slit but survived.
Newspaper Details
Barstow Press Dispatch
Barstow, California, US
Sun, Aug 15, 2004
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Meredith W.
NA, 29 May 2025
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