Virginia governor orders probe of missing evidence in death row case

RICHMOND, Va. (Reuters) -- Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore ordered state police Thursday to investigate the disappearance of key evidence in the case of a death row inmate set to be executed in two weeks for the murder of a 17-year-old college student.

Attorneys for convicted murderer Derek Rocco Barnabei, 33, had asked Gilmore to order DNA tests on a fingernail clipping and vaginal swabs taken from the victim, Old Dominion University freshman Sarah Wisnosky, who was raped and then beaten to death apparently with a hammer in September 1993.

"While it is uncertain whether further examination of the missing evidence would be probative, I am troubled by the apparent disappearance of this evidence," Gilmore said in a statement announcing the investigation.

Barnabei, who was convicted largely on circumstantial evidence and is set to be executed on September 14, steadfastly has denied raping and killing Wisnosky, his girlfriend at the time of the murder. The governor gave no indication that he would delay the execution.

Gilmore asked state police to try to determine what happened to the evidence, which was first noticed as missing Tuesday. The court clerk's office told Gilmore one of Barnabei's investigators, along with a television crew from the ABC News program "Nightline," had access to the evidence earlier this month, the governor said.

The investigator, Frank Slaton, denied removing or mishandling the evidence. A spokeswoman for "Nightline" declined comment until more was known about the situation.

According to prosecutors, Wisnosky was last seen alive in the house in which Barnabei lived with several other young men in Norfolk, Virginia, where police found the victim's blood stains on his bed, a bedroom wall, carpeting and on Barnabei's surf board, which was in another room in the house.

Wisnosky's nude body was found floating in the Lafayette River on September 22, 1993, about 16 hours after she was last seen with Barnabei. She had been struck at least 10 times in the back and right side of her head, fracturing her skull.

DNA tests confirmed Barnabei and Wisnosky had sex the night she died, but defense attorneys sought additional DNA tests on blood found under her fingernails and vaginal swabs they claimed could point to another man as the killer.

Seth Tucker, one of Barnabei's defense attorneys, described the discovery that evidence was missing from the Norfolk Circuit Court as "outrageous."

"If the government of Virginia has lost the DNA evidence in this case, it has an awful lot of explaining to do," he said. "That would be, in my view, a serious crime."

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For more US news, myCNN.com will bring you news from the areas and subjects you select.

See related sites about US

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.