2015/01/12

Charlotte Observer January 6, 2015: NC Court of Appeals upholds use of cigarette butt evidence in conviction for Kathy Taft murder

RALEIGH Jason Williford was in Nash Correctional Institution serving a life sentence for the murder and rape of former North Carolina school board member Kathy Taft on Tuesday, when debate was revived about the collection of DNA evidence used at his trial.

The N.C. Court of Appeals issued a ruling in the morning that upheld the guilty verdicts returned by a Wake County jury on June 1, 2012.

At issue was whether a Raleigh police officer violated Williford’s rights when he collected a discarded cigarette butt in the parking lot of the apartment building where the unemployed musician lived without first obtaining a search warrant.

A three-judge N.C. Appeals Court panel said collection of the evidence was constitutional and that Williford received a fair trial.

John R. Mills, the attorney who represented Williford on appeal, still contends otherwise and said he plans to seek review by the N.C. Supreme Court.

“The key issue is privacy,” Mills said. “All that Mr. Williford was asking them to do was have a court agree that there was enough probable cause that he committed a crime to ask for his DNA.”

The case raises issues about the delineation between home and the surrounding area, and where personal privacy begins and ends.

“Local law enforcement and crime lab scientists worked tirelessly to solve this brutal murder, with DNA evidence helping investigators zero in on the right suspect,” N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a statement released shortly after the appeals court decision. “Today’s ruling means law enforcement can continue to combine old-fashioned detective work with high-tech science to solve cases and achieve justice.”

Williford lived with his wife and several pet dogs in a four-unit apartment building about two-tenths of a mile from the house where Taft was attacked.

She was staying with her sister at a residence on Cartier Drive, the home of a friend who was out of town, recovering from minor cosmetic surgery she had undergone on the morning of March 5, 2010. Investigators said the attack occurred that night. more