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New science points to old suspect in 1979 murder

Carol Gregory's insistence that DNA technology may help find her sister's killer resulted in a second-degree murder charge against Walter Gill

Editor's Note: This is a text adaptation of CNN &Time's report, "Body of Evidence," which aired Sunday, October 22 at 9 p.m. EDT.

From CNN Legal Analyst Greta Van Susteren

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Carole Gregory's sister Diane was stabbed to death on August 29, 1979, in her Mount Vernon, New York, apartment.

According to police reports, neighbors saw 22-year-old Diane come home at about 2 a.m. the day she was killed and later saw someone come to her door. Police did not find a murder weapon or signs of forced entry, but they did find signs of a struggle.

Police initially suspected Walter Gill, an acquaintance of Diane's who had been convicted seven times in the past. Gill had an alibi, however, and was released.

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The case remained open for more than two decades, leaving Carole, her mother Pauline and Diane's daughter, Lakisha, to wonder if Diane's killer would ever be caught.

"Life goes on, but you never ever forget someone you love and that you lost, especially in a tragic death like this," Gregory said.

As the 20th anniversary of Diane's death approached, Gregory asked a childhood friend, who is now a city councilman in Mount Vernon, to contact police about reopening the case.

"The advancements that they have on this DNA technology, with all this going on, why can't someone re-open it, to look into it and see if there is something that can be done," Gregory said.

Capt. Robert Kelly re-examined the case and found that in addition to a suspect, police had also found a trail of blood from Diane's apartment to the roof of her building, down the fire escape to the sidewalk below.

But Kelly said that even with a blood sample, police would not have been able to make a case at the time of the murder.

"There was blood typing done, but it does not give you the specificity that DNA does," Kelly said. "It essentially just gives you a larger group of suspects."

Kelly found the blood samples in the homicide unit's files, where they had been stored under less than ideal conditions.

"We were looking for blood-stained evidence to be air dried and then placed in paper bags... that wasn't done in this particular case. However the evidence survived 20 years and the DNA was able to be successfully extrapolated," Kelly said.

Once the DNA evidence was collected, Kelly began searching for Walter Gill, the original suspect in the killing.

Investigators ran Gill's name through the police information database. Within minutes they discovered that the man who had been a suspect in 1979 was already in a New York state jail serving a 10 to 20 year sentence for armed robbery.

Not only that, Gill's DNA sample was already on file. New York, like every other state, requires violent felons to submit a blood sample to be included in the state's central DNA database.

Last December New York Gov. George Pataki expanded the law to include non-violent felons. And he hopes to expand it even further, to include serious misdemeanors.

Based on DNA evidence, Walter Gill was charged with the murder of Diane Gregory, shown here with her daughter Lakisha.

New York's newly expanded law added 107 offenses to the database. For the first time it included robbery convictions, like Gill's. And because the law was retroactive, Gill, who was convicted in 1994, had to submit a DNA sample.

In January, Gill, who was an inmate in a New York state prison, was required to submit a blood sample to be put in the database and about the same time, the Gregory family made inquiries on the case.

The state lab compared the DNA of the blood from Diane's apartment with the DNA sample Gill submitted in January.

Police say they matched.

"Essentially he was the only person, statistically, in the whole world who could have committed that crime," Kelly said.

Kelly said Gill confessed when he was confronted with the DNA evidence.

"He indicated that he was sorry that he had done this to Diane and certainly the effect that it had on her family," Kelly said.

Gill was charged with second-degree murder in March and pleaded not guilty. Both Gill and his attorneys turned down CNN's request for an interview.

Gregory said she had mixed emotions when she heard that Gill was charged.

"I felt we were opening up old wounds," she said. "My mother had mixed emotions as well. The first thing she said was, 'Thank God, he answered my prayers,' and then she broke down and cried."

If Gill had not been charged with the murder, he would have been eligible for parole in May 2001.

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New York DNA database
Virginia
National Commission for the Future of DNA Evidence

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