2018/01/03

Forensic Magazine Dec 29, 2017: Y-STR DNA to Be Included in Boston Dorm Rape Trial

A Y-STR DNA sample from a victim of a college-dorm rape will be admitted at the trial of a former MIT basketball player, according to a Massachusetts Superior Court decision this week.

Samson Donick, 21, will go on trial next month for the incident, which allegedly occurred in a Boston University dorm room in the early-morning hours of Oct. 18, 2015, according to authorities.

Donick’s motion in limine was to exclude the DNA evidence as presented by prosecutors.

The DNA arguments were made on either side by two of the most prominent names in DNA analysis: Bruce Budowle, of the University of North Texas Health Science Center, and Greg Hampikian, a Boise State University scientist who has worked extensively with exoneration groups like the Innocence Project.

The analysis of the genital swab and Donick’s buccal swab was performed by the Serological Research Institute in Richmond, California. It focused on Y-STR, paternally-linked genetic markers. The scientists at the lab concluded “approximately one in 8,631 males in the general population could be included as the contributor” of the DNA – and one 2,488 Caucasian males.

The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office had presented evidence that Donick, as an Ashkenazi Jew, had sufficiently rare Y-STR genes that it was inculpatory evidence. Budowle, their expert, had previously testified about small ethnic group studies, and had shown how the Y-STR found from the forensic swabs matched 16 of 16 possible markers with Donick’s DNA. more