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May 12, 2010

DNA experts tesify in machete attack trial

By Betty Adams badams@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

SKOWHEGAN — Jurors learned today about how the evidence collected in the investigation of the May 2008 home invasion in Pittston was processed and analyzed at the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory in Augusta.

The evidence process was detailed by experts on the fifth day of the trial of Daniel Fortune, 22, of Augusta, who is charged with aggravated attempted murder of William Guerrette Jr. and his daughter Nicole, then 10. The Guerrettes spent weeks hospitalized and suffer permanent injuries inflicted by a machete-wielding intruder.

Fortune is charged with more than a dozen crimes involving the May 27, 2008, home invasion and a Nov. 19, 2007, theft of a safe containing more than $100,000 worth of cash and property at the same Pittston home.

A codefendant, Leo R. Hylton, 20, pleaded guilty to crimes related to the home invasion and was sentenced Feb. 26 to 90 years in prison with all but 50 years suspended and 15 years probation.

Hylton testified on Monday saying he could recall little of what happened.

Fortune and Hylton were former foster brothers sharing an Augusta apartment when the home invasion occurred.

Investigators were at their door a couple of hours after the home invasion occurred because Fortune had been indicted in previous theft at the Guerrette residence.

Today, Cathy McMillan, DNA analyst at the Maine State Police Crime Laboratory in Augusta, testifed that she identified William Guerrette’s blood on a machete investigators found in a field off the Nelson Road in Pittston.

She also found Guerrette’s blood on the tread of sneakers found at the same location and on a pair of black sweatpants. Those pants also contained DNA that was matched to a former girlfriend of Fortune.

More experts from the crime lab are expected to take the stand this afternoon.

So far, 22 witnesses, including four members of the Guerrette family, have testified at the trial in Somerset County Superior Court which began last Thursday.
 

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