Evidence baked at lab, technician testifies by Christopher Keating, Hartford Courant, 21 May 2002

Evidence By CHRISTOPHER KEATING COURANT STAFF WRITER NEW HAVEN - Crucial DNA evidence in the Concetta "Penney" Serra murder case was kept stored in a utility room that often reached temperatures of more than 100 degrees, a former laboratory worker testified Monday. William Paetzold told jurors the evidence was kept at the state's forensic laboratory in Meriden during the 1980s. Paetzold was assigned to the Serra case by the laboratory's then-director, famed forensic scientist Henry C. Lee. Another defense witness, DNA analyst Kathryn Colombo, testified that intense heat can damage DNA samples NEW BRITAIN Baked At Lab, Technician Testifies and cause them to break down. Since the laboratory had little storage "Samples are best preserved if they're space in those days, the box of evidence in a cool, dry environment," Colombo was stored in various places before gotold the 12-member jury in New Haven ing to the utility room, which contained Superior Court. an electrical transformer, Paetzold testiPaetzold testified the evidence in- fied. cluded a bloody tissue box recovered "In the summertime, it was oppresfrom the crime scene; a bloody parking sively hot," said Paetzold, who is now a ticket that was handed in by the killer; criminal defense attorney in GlastonbuSerra's blue dress and hairpiece; a and ry. "Temper it was less than fingerprint evidence. a sauna, but it was certainly over 100 dePaetzold and Colombo testified dur- grees." ing the 15th day of the murder trial of Ed- On cross-examination, prosecutor ward R. Grant, a Waterbury auto me- James G. Clark appeared incredulous at chanic who is charged with stabbing Paetzold's transformer-room testimoSerra to death in a downtown New Ha- ny. ven parking garage in July 1973. The "A hundred degrees?" Clark asked killing, which went unsolved for dec- Paetzold. ades, became one of the state's most no- "It was definitely warmer than 100 detorious crimes and was featured on the grees," Paetzold responded. "60 Minutes" television show as an unsolved case at the time. PLEASE SEE EVIDENCE, PAGE B5