Retrial of man accused of 1985 murder focuses on details of DNA testing

WINNIPEG — Prosecutors have begun laying out their DNA evidence at the retrial of a man accused of killing a 13-year-old girl back in 1984.

Mark Edward Grant has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Candace Derksen, who vanished while walking home from school.

Grant was arrested decades after the girl’s body was found frozen and tied up in a shed.

Mitochondrial DNA testing done by an Ontario lab was used to link Grant to the crime.

A former scientist with the lab, Arlene Lahti, walked the trial Wednesday through painstaking specifics about how the testing worked.

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She was often asked to stop by the judge, who was taking notes.

Lahti did not test any samples from Grant himself, but did test some from several of his maternal relatives. She told court she didn’t know who any of the people were.

It was other scientists from the lab who would eventually test hairs and DNA extracts from twine used to tie Derksen that pointed police to Grant.

Under stiff cross examination from Grant’s lawyer, Saul Simmonds, Lahti admitted she had no special training in forensics and that mitochondrial DNA testing “could be” susceptible to contamination.

Later, she admitted it could be less discerning than nuclear DNA testing, a different form of the testing.

Simmonds repeatedly made reference to how Lahti was not technically an expert witness in the legal sense and appeared to question the degree of her knowledge in certain areas.

He had questions about the protocols followed by her lab and the type of proficiency testing that was done to ensure work was being completed properly.

This was the first of several straight days of painstaking and scientific evidence related to the DNA.

Defence lawyers have already told court they will argue testimony from the next witness, Curtis Hildebrandt, another scientist at the lab, should not be admissible.

Grant was convicted of killing Derksen in 2011, largely because of the DNA evidence presented to the jury, but that conviction was overturned after an appeal.

This new trial is being heard by a judge alone and is expected to last several more weeks.

(CJOB)

The Canadian Press