Slaying prompts DNA tests

Web posted Tuesday, February 6, 2001

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By Katie Throne
South Carolina Bureau

AIKEN - Detectives investigating Jessica Carpenter's slaying at her Crosland Park home have sent DNA samples from two Aiken men charged in a violent hotel robbery and assault to be tested, authorities said Monday.

Jessica Carpenter. SPECIAL

Police said they took DNA swabs from Gehazel Jamal Muse, 21, and Nicholas Jermaine Smith, 19, and sent them to a lab at the State Law Enforcement Division in Columbia. Both men, along with Tonnie Nathaniel Baldwin, are accused in an armed robbery and burglary at Royal Inn. Mr. Baldwin has been named by Aiken police as a suspect in the death of Jessica, 17.

At least 65 people have given DNA samples as police seek to find who is responsible for Jessica's death. Jessica's mother found her body Aug. 4 in their home, where the high school senior had been raped and strangled.

A jail-house informant told police that Mr. Baldwin had confessed to him to killing Jessica, but his fingerprints and DNA did not match evidence collected at the Carpenter house. He hasn't been charged in the slaying. Mr. Baldwin was the only suspect who forced officials to get a court order to obtain DNA samples, Assistant Solicitor Bill Weeks said.

Authorities are including Mr. Muse and Mr. Smith on a list of people they've taken DNA samples from because of their connection with Mr. Baldwin, who had been in jail since the Oct. 29 crimes at the Royal Inn.

One of the co-defendants implicated Mr. Smith in the hotel incident, which led to his arrest Friday, the assistant solicitor said.

In recent weeks, investigators have speculated that more than one person might have committed the Carpenter slaying - a suspicion that is leading them to look closer at Mr. Baldwin's associates. They have charged him and one other person with a separate killing, the Oct. 6 slaying of college student Jason Bernard Cook, whose body was found on Horseshoe Bend Road. He had been shot.

``We don't know if (Mr. Muse and Mr. Smith) played a part in the Carpenter murder,'' Mr. Weeks said. ``We're still investigating.''

Results from the DNA tests are expected in a few weeks, Capt. Galardi said, adding that authorities could take more samples from others in an effort to identify who killed Jessica.

``Anybody who is remotely related to this we're swabbing, if they'll give us a swab,'' Capt. Galardi said.

Reach Katie Throne at (803) 279-6895.

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