Kenneth White pleaded guilty on Tuesday to killing 21-year old Ebony Robinson and their unborn child.
Robinson was shot four times on a road outside Hillsborough in December 2007; she was eight months pregnant at the time. DNA tests concluded that White was the father of her baby.
White, 40, was sentenced to life in prison. District Attorney Jim Woodall had been scheduled to announce on Tuesday whether the state would seek the death penalty for White.
Not all DNA tests are created equal.
I would like to know how the DNA sample(s) in this case were tested. Were they a CODIS/ autosomal test? YDNA test? Or mtDNA test? How many markers were used? If a mtDNA test was done, was a full genome sequencing done?
Is it a CODIS test? The CODIS system has been tested and there are perfect matches within the database of different persons.
Is it a mitochondrial DNA test which matches everyone who descended from the same maternal ancestor as THE DEFENDENT(S)?
Is it a Y Chromosome test which matches everyone who has the same paternal lineage for the past 400 years?
There may be a way to combine all of these that will resolve the identity to one person, but is what they have beyond a reasonable doubt?