Friday, February 2, 2018

Kevin Keith; Ohio: A former controversial forensic scientist G. Michele Yezzo case: 'Convicted Triple Murderer Alleges Bogus Snow Imprint Forensic Analysis in Federal Suit,' The Forensic Magazine reports..."Police took tire and license plate impressions from the snow. The partial plate number, officers determined, was “043.” The lawsuit alleges that Yezzo made a determination that the tire tracks and the license plate both matched Keith’s girlfriend’s grandfather’s car—a blue-green car with the license plate “MRV043,” according to the court documents. Yezzo found that the plate impression had “spacing and orientation similar to the license plate ‘MRV043’ on the vehicle submitted” as evidence. Additionally, Yezzo made a tire match based on a receipt and brochure provided by police detectives, according to the suit. “Yezzo never physically examined any tire,” the suit adds."..."Yezzo retired in 2009, after being reprimanded for making forensic errors. Her career was the focus of a series of stories in The Columbus Dispatch in October 2016. The suit also alleges witnesses had identified another shooter, who was a convicted killer at the time of the triple slaying, and who was driving a yellow car. One of the license plates registered to that yellow car: “043LIJ,” according to the lawsuit."


PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Tire track analysis and license-plate imprints in a snowbank helped lead to a conviction, and a death sentence, according to the federal lawsuit filed this week. Those two pieces of forensic analysis were provided by the first named defendant in the new lawsuit, G. Michele Yezzo, a former forensic scientist at the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation—whose work on multiple criminal cases has been questioned. Five years before the triple murder, an internal BCI memo had stated Yezzo’s “findings and conclusions regarding evidence may be suspect. She will stretch the truth to satisfy a department.” Keith and his attorneys contend that he should have a new chance to inspect the evidence that almost resulted in his execution."

STORY: "Convicted Triple Murderer Alleges Bogus Snow Imprint Forensic Analysis in Federal Suit," by Science Writer Seth Augenstein, published by The Forensic Magazine on January 10, 2018.