Witness: Hernandez DNA matched cigarette butt at murder scene

Posted: Published on March 6th, 2015

This post was added by Dr P. Richardson

Former New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez watches during his murder trial Friday, March 6, 2015, in Fall River, Mass.

FALL RIVER, Mass. Former New England Patriots and Florida player Aaron Hernandez's DNA matched genetic material found on a cigarette butt at the scene of a murder, a crime lab scientist testified Friday.

Hernandez is on trial for murder in the June 2013 killing of Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee. Lloyd's body was found in an industrial park near Hernandez's home, and prosecutors have said previously a marijuana cigarette was found near his bullet-riddled body.

Diane Fife Biagiotti of the state police crime lab told jurors that she received rolling paper from a 2-inch-long cigarette butt to test for DNA. She said she found it had the DNA of at least two people on it.

She said she first compared it with Lloyd's DNA and discovered he could have been one of the people whose DNA appeared on the butt. She said she then was able to use Lloyd's DNA to deduce the second DNA contributor.

"I did a comparison between the profile I deduced and the profile of Aaron Hernandez," she said. "I found that the profile from Aaron Hernandez matched the deduced DNA profile."

She then ran a statistical analysis and determined the likelihood it was someone else is one in more than a quadrillion.

"How many zeros does a quadrillion have?" prosecutor William McCauley asked her?

"One with 15 zeros after it," she replied.

He then asked her the world's population: 7 billion and pointed out a quadrillion is one million times a quadrillion.

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Witness: Hernandez DNA matched cigarette butt at murder scene

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