DNA expert: Don't rule out Fortin as source of evidence
DNA found on cigarette butt, under victim's nails, may be suspect's
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

NEW BRUNSWICK - An expert in DNA testing, specifically criminal and biological testing, testified last week that Steven Fortin could not be excluded as the primary source of DNA found on a Marlboro cigarette butt that was found near the crime scene of Melissa Padilla's murder.

Charlotte Word testified that there were two sources of DNA found on the cigarette butt - one primary source and one minor source.

"The findings were consistent to Steven Fortin and he could not be excluded as the primary source on the cigarette butt," said Word, who was working as a molecular geneticist at Cellmark Diagnostics in Germantown, Md., at the time of the murder.

Fortin, who is now 43 years old, is being retried on capital murder charges for the robbery, sexual assault and strangulation of Melissa Padilla, 25, in 1994 after she picked up some food for her four young children (ages 2 to 5) around 11 p.m. from Quick Chek on Route 1 in the Avenel section of Woodbridge.

Padilla's body was discovered naked from the waist down in a concrete pipe alongside Route 1. Her face and head had been brutally beaten, resulting in a broken nose, she had been sexually assaulted and had bite marks on her chin and left breast, and she had been strangled to death.

Police had exhausted all of their leads and the case remained unsolved until the Maine State Police contacted Woodbridge Township Police, inquiring about Fortin in April 1995 because he was a township resident at the time. He was under investigation for an assault of a Maine state trooper. According to reports, she suffered a broken nose and bites to her chin and left breast.

Fortin pleaded guilty to assault and was sentenced in November 1995 to 20 years in a Maine prison.

Fortin was found guilty of Padilla's murder and sentenced to death by lethal injection in 2000.

The New Jersey State Supreme Court overturned the conviction and death sentence of Fortin in February 2004 in a 4-2 decision.

The court cited that the testimony at the original trial of former FBI agent Robert Hazelwood concerning linkage analysis lacked sufficient scientific reliability to establish that the same perpetrator committed the Maine and New Jersey crimes.

Police did not uncover any forensic evidence linking Fortin to the Padilla murder.

Word said when the DNA sample was tested, it was found it came from 1 out of 3,500 Caucasian people, 1 out of 10,000 Hispanic people, and 1 out of 14,000 African American people. Fortin is Caucasian.

Word also testified that Fortin could not be excluded as the minor DNA source for material found underneath Padilla's left fingernail clippings.

At the time of the murder, forensic scientists were conducting ABO blood testing, which is now considered obsolete.

Fortin's blood type was found to be AB. Type A blood was found on the cigarette butt.

Mike Priarone, one of Fortin's defense attorneys, asked Patricia Prusak, who is an expert in forensic science specializing in bio chemistry at the Office of Forensic Sciences for the New Jersey State Police, if type A blood was found on the cigarette butt, it could not be consistent with Fortin's type AB blood.

"Yes, it is not consistent with his [Fortin's] blood type," said Prusak. "If Fortin's [DNA] was found on the cigarette butt, then there has to be a mixture on it."

Dawn Archer, Fortin's girlfriend at the time of the murder, testified that Fortin smoked Marlboro cigarettes, and Maine State Police found two boxes of Marlboro cigarettes when they searched his vehicle after the Maine incident.

Dr. Adam Freeman, an expert in forensic dentistry, testified that he did a nationwide study of 259 bite-mark cases. Freeman's study is the largest bite-mark study that has been done in the United States.

"Breasts bitten are common in sexual assault cases," said Freeman.

The doctor said out of all the 259 bitemark cases in his study, he found only five cases that had bites to the chin and breast; however, there were no studies focused specifically on cases with bite marks to the chin and breast.