BACKGROUND: "A trial date for the Colts Neck family murders case is expected to be set in November, Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Christopher Swendeman said. Paul Caneiro, 57, of Ocean Township, has been awaiting trial in the case since 2018, and is accused of killing his brother, his brother’s wife, and their children. According to authorities, Caniero’s brother Keith, Keith’s wife, Jennifer, and their two children were found dead at Keith’s home in Colts Neck on Nov. 20, 2018, when a fire broke out at their home. Keith Caneiro had been shot to death, authorities said. That fire was discovered a few hours after two fires were started at Paul Caneiro’s home at 27 Tilton Drive in Ocean Township. Though Caneiro’s home was damaged from the fire, Caneiro, his wife Susan, and his two daughters all escaped uninjured. On Nov. 21, Paul Caneiro was taken into custody by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and accused of setting his own home on fire. He would later be charged with four counts of first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree felony murder amongst other charges for the deaths of his brother and his brother’s family. According to Swendeman, Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux intends to set a trial date for Caneiro on Nov. 12, and expects jury selection to begin either in late February or early March. Last week, Lemieux rejected a request from defense attorneys to extend deadlines for experts to submit reports on DNA evidence being challenged by the defense, the Asbury Park Press reported. According to the report, Caneiro’s defense first filed to have a hearing challenging the admissibility of DNA evidence in March 2022. Delays in the hearing taking place have been the only thing standing in the way of Caneiro’s trial, the report said. "This court can't allow experts, whether they are paid or they're doing it on a voluntary basis, to continue to slow down this court's process of getting to a hearing date,'' Lemieux said, according to the report."
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Michael Coble, a professor at the University of North Texas and executive director of its Center for Human Identification, vouched for the reliability of STRmix, the computer software that was used to analyze DNA evidence in the Caneiro case using a once untraditional method known as probabilistic genotyping. "There are two types of labs in the United States,'' Coble testified at a hearing before Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux, Monmouth County's assignment judge. "There are labs that are using probabilistic genotyping and labs that will soon be using probabilistic genotyping.'' The hearing is the first in New Jersey at which probabilistic genotyping and the STRmix software is being challenged by the defense and, as such, the outcome will have implications not only for Caneiro, 57, of Ocean Township, but for the use of the method and software in criminal cases going forward."
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STORY: "Expert vouches for software that analyzed DNA evidence in Caneiro murders," by Reporter Kathleen Hopkins, published by The Asbury Park Press, on November 20, 2024. (Kathleen Hopkins, a reporter in New Jersey since 1985, covers crime, court cases, legal issues and just about every major murder trial to hit Monmouth and Ocean counties.)
GIST: "As a judge weighs the admissibility of DNA evidence against Paul Caneiro in the murders of four family members, a leading DNA expert testified Tuesday that the method and technology used to analyze that evidence is the wave of the future at crime labs in the United States.
Michael Coble, a professor at the University of North Texas and executive director of its Center for Human Identification, vouched for the reliability of STRmix, the computer software that was used to analyze DNA evidence in the Caneiro case using a once untraditional method known as probabilistic genotyping.
"There are two types of labs in the United States,'' Coble testified at a hearing before Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux, Monmouth County's assignment judge. "There are labs that are using probabilistic genotyping and labs that will soon be using probabilistic genotyping.''
The hearing is the first in New Jersey at which probabilistic genotyping and the STRmix software is being challenged by the defense and, as such, the outcome will have implications not only for Caneiro, 57, of Ocean Township, but for the use of the method and software in criminal cases going forward.
Caneiro is charged with the murders of his brother Keith, 50, sister-in-law, Jennifer, 45, niece, Sophia, 8, and nephew, Jesse, 11, whose bodies were found Nov. 21, 2018, during a fire at Keith Caneiro's Colts Neck mansion that authorities allege Paul Caneiro set to cover up the crimes.
Keith Caneiro was shot four times in the head and once in the back, and Jennifer and the two children were repeatedly stabbed and badly burned. Jennifer Caneiro also was shot in the head.
Authorities allege Paul Caneiro committed the murders after Keith discovered he was stealing from the businesses they co-owned, and then he returned to his home and set fire to it to make it look like the family was being targeted by violent criminals.
Items later recovered from Paul Caneiro's basement - a pair of jeans and gloves - had a mixture of his and Sophia's DNA on them, and a portion of the jeans also had a mixture containing Jesse's DNA on them.
The items were tested using the STRmix software, which is designed to test smaller samples and complex mixtures of DNA that often can't be analyzed using traditional methods.
The state Public Defenders Office, which is representing Paul Caneiro, argues the STRmix software deviates from traditional methods of DNA analysis and is not generally accepted in the scientific community. In order to admit the DNA evidence at trial, the judge must find that the technology that generated it is generally accepted in the scientific community..
The probabilistic genotyping method that STRmix uses deviates from the traditional method known as random match probability, which generates a statistic on the probability a match to a DNA profile can be found in the general population.
Probabilistic genotyping instead analyzes mixtures to which more than one person have contributed to generate a "likelihood ratio'' that a person of interest can either be included or excluded as a contributor to the mixture.
Coble, the last witness for the prosecution in its efforts to convince the judge to admit the DNA evidence, testified that probabilistic genotyping has been embraced by the scientific community.
Crime labs in Europe were using probabilistic genotyping long before labs in the United States, but now about 75 percent of the crime labs in the nation that do DNA testing are using it, Coble said.
The U.S. Army's crime lab was the first in the country to go online with STRmix software for DNA analysis in 2014, Coble said.
"As a whole, probabilistic genotyping has been accepted and adopted by the scientific community in the United States,'' Coble testified. "It is my opinion STRmix is generally accepted in the United States. It is the most prevalent software in use.''
Prior to his current position, Coble worked for the National Institute of Standards and Technology and as research section chief for the Armed Forces DNA Identification Lab.
He testified that he has authored about 100 peer-reviewed articles, many on probabilistic genotyping and STRmix, and has been involved in developing guidelines on use of the technology as a member of national and international scientific organizations.
When first introduced to STRmix, Coble said he was impressed at how quick it could analyze a mixed DNA sample - within 30 seconds.
"My feeling is, it's such an improvement in the time and effort it takes to interpret a mixture,'' Coble said.
"It has really improved our ability to interpret complex mixtures,'' he said.
Defense attorneys are expected to call their expert witnesses when the hearing resumes Dec. 2."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.
- SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
