By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
TAMPA — Jurors heard from a state expert Wednesday who said 19-year-old rape suspect Kendrick Morris' DNA was found on swabs taken from a Hillsborough day care worker sexually attacked in 2007.
"That DNA," prosecutor Rita Peters told jurors Tuesday, "was all that it took to link that boy, that man to the attack."
Erika Smith, who tested the DNA for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said that the probability someone else has the same DNA profile as Morris is 1 in 320 quadrillion.
Defense attorney Rocky Brancato, who in his opening statement told jurors the DNA was contaminated, questioned another state witness about semen found in the victim's oral swab.
A nurse testified Tuesday that the victim said she had not been assaulted orally. The victim's testimony did not mention an oral assault, but she did say the suspect covered her mouth with a glove after he had raped her.
Smith said she did find semen in the swab, but could not find enough DNA to identify its source.
After lunch, the defense is expected to cross-examine Smith.
Prosecutors say Morris' DNA also links him to the 2008 brutal rape of a teenage girl at the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library.
Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3354.