DNA technology crucial in murder conviction of John Wakefield

Schenectady

Jurors convicted John Wakefield of first-degree murder Friday, nearly five years after the two-time prior felon strangled 41-year-old Brett Wentworth with an amplifier cord in his home.

Wakefield, 48, who was released from jail just two days before he took Wentworth's life on April 11, 2010, now faces life in prison without parole at his sentencing May 27.

Wentworth family members shed tears and embraced as the verdict in the three-week trial was delivered to state Supreme Court Justice Michael Coccoma just before 5 p.m.

It was a major victory for Mark Perlin, the Pittsburgh-based founder of new DNA technology, Cybergenetics True Allele Casework, which showed Wakefield's DNA was found on the victim's shirt collar, forearm and the murder weapon. Perlin, who testified Tuesday, was the star witness for Assistant District Attorney Peter Willis.

Three other witnesses, two of them jail inmates, the other a lifelong friend of the defendant, testified that Wakefield admitted to them at separate times he killed Wentworth. The prosecution said Wakefield's primary motivation was stealing money, a laptop and PlayStation 3 video game system from Wentworth, who had paranoid schizophrenia and had no known enemies.

Barbara Conary, the victim's mother, fighting tears, noted the fifth anniversary of her son's murder was just weeks away. Wentworth's sister, Margaret Messer, said her brother had been raising an 11-year-old daughter when he was slain.

"He was loving, he was kind, he cared about his family tremendously ... he was a wonderful man," Messer said. Wakefield will at least live in prison, she said. "Brett doesn't get that chance." Then, referring to her brother's murderer, she asked: "Why should he?"

Defense attorney Frederick Rench, who previously called Perlin's science "voodoo," ultimately did not contest it. Instead he suggested that Wakefield wore a sweatshirt of the victim and, as a result, his DNA was innocently spread to Wentworth. He vowed to appeal.

The jury began deliberating not long after 10 a.m. The verdict came about six hours later: Guilty on all counts, which included first-degree robbery.

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DNA technology crucial in murder conviction of John Wakefield