DNA doesn't match in murder trial

PORT ORCHARD — Jurors in the retrial of Brian Keith Lord — whose murder conviction in the 1986 slaying of a 16-year-old girl was overturned — learned yesterday that Lord's DNA didn't match the DNA in a semen sample taken from the victim's body.

The information, thought to be the linchpin in Lord's defense, was introduced by prosecutors as they wound down their case against the 42-year-old former carpenter. They contend the evidence doesn't exonerate Lord but is simply inconclusive.

The prosecution's DNA expert testified in Kitsap County Superior Court that DNA isolated from sperm and skin-cell samples taken from the body of Tracy Parker did not match DNA from either Parker or Lord.

Because of that test, Lord's attorneys have long said they expect Lord to become the latest of several defendants nationwide exonerated as a result of advances in DNA technology.

"The meaning of the report is clear," defense attorney Peter Camiel wrote in a previously filed court document. "Brian Keith Lord was not the donor of the sperm left in Tracy Parker's body when she was killed. The defense will be arguing that the donor of that sperm is her killer and that person is not Brian Keith Lord."

Prosecutors, however, said the sample taken from Parker's body was so diluted and had broken down so much over the nearly two decades since her death that the results are, at best, inconclusive.

"We don't think they mean anything," said Deputy Prosecutor Tim Drury.

DNA expert Shawn Weiss testified yesterday that an initial test on the sample failed to reveal any DNA evidence at all, despite a plethora of skin cells.

And in a second test, only two distinctive markers out of eight could be identified. Weiss said it could not be determined what kind of cell the DNA came from, or even whether it belonged to a man or to a woman.

Lord was convicted in 1987 of aggravated murder and sentenced to die for the rape and murder of Parker, an ebullient and athletic North Kitsap High School student.

But four years ago, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial. The court said Lord's attorneys had failed to present critical evidence at trial from three boys who told police they saw Parker alive the day after police say Lord killed her.

The defense attorneys said they anticipate that the three witnesses whose testimony was excluded from the first trial will testify Wednesday. The state is expected to rest its case Monday.

Prosecutors have decided not to seek the death penalty if Lord is convicted this time. He would, however, be sentenced to life without possibility of parole.

Christine Clarridge: 206-515-5689 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com