Serra Continued from Page B1 the crush of media out front. After the arraignment, Rosemary Serra, Penney's sister, gave a short press conference on the steps of the Elm Street courthouse, thanking both Chief State's Attorney John Bailey's office and New Haven State's Attorney Michael Dearing. ton's office. "It's overwhelming to see their dedication and perseverance and I know my father's resting in peace," she said, referring to John Serra, who dogged police for years to solve the crime. Rosemary Serra said the arrest can finally give the family some closure. She said they aren't worried that investigators may have once again arrested the wrong man, as they have done before. Investigators have located three areas where they say DNA testing has matched Grant's blood, Morano said. The most exact match is on the pink tissue recovered from inside Serra's car. DINA testing done at the Analytic Genetic Testing Center in Denver indicate there is a 1 in 878,000,000 chance that the blood belongs to anyone other than Grant, according to the arrest warrant. DNA testing also was done on the handkerchief recovered from the pavement on the seventh floor of the garage. The tests indicate there is a 1 in 165,000 chance that the blood belongs to anyone other than Grant, the warrant said. The third blood match was taken from the interior of Serra's car where investigators believe the altercation between Serra an and her attacker first started. Those tests indicate that there is a 1 in 2,900 chance that the blood belongs to anyone other than Grant, the warrant said. The arrest warrant does try to address why Grant would be in New Haven in 1973. Grant, who has four plates in his head from a Jeep accident while he was in the National Guard, routinely visited the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Haven. Grant also told investigators during an interview in 1997 that he used to visit an auto-body shop called Cashers on Whalley Avenue. The two workers the shop do not remember Grant visited the busi- ness around the time of Serra's death. Investigators do not believe Grant knew Serra or her family. He has told them that he suffers from blackouts and doesn't remember anything. The genesis of Grant as a suspect started in July 1997 when two fingerprint examiners, Kenneth Zercie and Christopher Grice, from the State Police Forensic Laboratory 'identified a thumbprint on the tissue box left in Serra's car. As it happens, both Zercie and Grice are former New Haven police officers. The department has been severely criticized for the initial handling of the Serra case. Using the latest in computer enhancement techniques, Zercie and Grice developed the new print and then matched it to Grant using the lab's automated fingerprinting system. Grant's prints were on file with the Waterbury Police Department, which had arrested him in 1994 on two counts of breach of peace in connection with a fight with an exgirlfriend on Walnut Street, police said Friday. Courant Staff Writer Stephanie Reitz contributed to this story.
