State v. Williford:  Gumshoes, Trash, Parking Lots and DNA

Kathy Taft was bludgeoned and raped on March 5, 2010, as she lay in the bedroom of a friends’ home in Raleigh recovering from surgery.  She died four days later.  Raleigh police tracked down her killer, Jason Williford, through what then-police chief Harry Dolan called "gumshoe detective work":  They collected and tested trash discarded by neighborhood men who refused to provide samples of their DNA. Jason Williford lived in a four-unit apartment building less than two-tenths of a mile from the home where Taft was murdered. Police became suspicious when, unlike many other males in the neighborhood, Williford refused to provide a sample of his DNA for analysis. This is where the parking lot comes in. Determined to get a sample anyway, police set up surveillance of the area. They watched as Williford returned from grocery shopping and drove into the parking lot for the apartments, which was situated directly in front of the four-unit building.  The lot was shielded from the road, but was not gated. Williford, who was smoking a cigarette, parked in one of the lot’s seven unmarked spaces and got out of his car. He finished smoking the cigarette and dropped the butt on the parking lot.  One officer approached Williford to distract him, while the other retrieved the cigarette butt. DNA testing revealed that Williford’s DNA was a match for the DNA collected from the crime scene and from a rape kit of Taft. Williford was arrested and subsequently indicted for first degree murder, first degree [...]