Thursday, April 14, 2016

Bulletin: David Faulkner and Jonathan Smith. Washington County; Judge (Stephen Kehoe) continues to hear arguments in request for new trial..."On April 13, Kehoe also heard arguments from Faulkner and Smith’s lawyers on the introduction of palm prints found in Wilford’s home that allegedly belong to Ty Anthony Brooks, also known as Ty Brooks and Tyrone Brooks, 48, of Easton, who currently is in a Maryland prison. According to court documents, Ty Brooks was convicted in 2006 of second-degree burglary with a firearm and in 2012 of theft less than $1,000 value. Ty Brooks has been matched with seven latent prints lifted from Wilford’s home, according to testimony provided by Alexander Mankevich, a latent print examiner with the Maryland State Police Crime Lab in Pikesville. Mankevich said palm prints lifted from a washing machine in Wilford’s home, as well as a window identified as the point of entry in the 1987 crime, returned an identification for Brooks in February 2014. Special prosecutor Joseph Michael, deputy state’s attorney for Washington County, who has been assigned to the case, said, given Ty Brooks’ aliases, the state questions whether the Ty Anthony Brooks interviewed Feb. 19, 2015, about the 1987 murder by Maryland State Police, is the same Ty Anthony Brooks identified by the Automated Fingerprint Identification System in 2014. “Is that the same person? It’s not my burden (to prove). It usually is the state’s burden, but now the burden has shifted,” Michael said to Kehoe. “If it were the state that didn’t make this connection, would you allow that?”...Star Democrat;

 
http://www.stardem.com/news/crime/article_ad3fbe29-25b8-5044-94ee-96f85d584061.html