ROCK FALLS, Ill. (AP) - The trial of a man accused in the 2008 beating deaths of four people in northwestern Illinois focused mainly Wednesday on testimony about DNA evidence.
Nicholas Sheley is on trial in the slayings of two men, a woman and a toddler who were beaten to death with a hammer in a Rock Falls apartment. Their slayings are among eight that authorities allege Sheley committed in Illinois and Missouri over seven days.
Anne Kwiatkowski of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department crime lab was on the witness stand for about five hours testifying about DNA tests conducted on swabs taken from clothing and other items recovered by investigators, The Daily Gazette reported (http://bit.ly/1kMEWb7 ).
Kwiatkowski testified that DNA found on clothing connected to Sheley matched the DNA profiles of three of the four apartment residents, as well as Sheley and his then-wife, Holly. DNA connected to Ronald Randall, a man Sheley was convicted of killing, was also found.
Kwiatkowski said some of the DNA found also matched the profiles of Jill and Tom Estes, the Arkansas couple Sheley is accused of killing in Missouri.
Objections by defense attorney Jeremy Karlin contributed to Kwiatkowski's long stay on the stand, the newspaper reported.
"An extraordinary amount of time was wasted," Assistant Attorney General Bill Elward said at the close of the seventh day of Sheley's third murder trial.
Sheley is serving life sentences for the slayings of Randall and Russell Reed, 93, of Sterling. He has pleaded not guilty to killing 29-year-old Brock Branson; 20-year-old Kilynna Blake; her son, 2-year-old Dayan; and 25-year-old Kenneth Ulve.
He is awaiting trial in the deaths of the Arkansas couple and could face the death penalty, if convicted.
Information from: The Daily Gazette, http://www.saukvalley.com