FREEHOLD – An assistant prosecutor argued Friday that the sophisticated computer software that generated DNA evidence in one of Monmouth County’s most high-profile murder cases has been deemed reliable in courtrooms across the county and should now be accepted in New Jersey.
But a lawyer for Paul Caneiro, who is accused of killing his brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew, argued that the software is not reliable enough to decide the fate of criminal defendants because it was put on the market without any problems brought. adequate, independent testing by a company struggling to get its finances in order.
Now, Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux, Monmouth County’s assignment judge, will decide whether DNA evidence generated by computer software known as STRmix will be admitted at Caneiro’s upcoming trial.
His ruling will have statewide implications for the software, as it has never before been challenged in a New Jersey court.
Attorneys for the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office summarized their arguments Friday in a weekslong hearing in the Caneiro case over whether DNA evidence analyzed by the STRmix computer software will be admissible when the 57 -year-old Ocean A community man will go on trial next year for the murder of his brother, Keith, 50; sister-in-law Jennifer, 45; niece Sophia, 8; and cousin Jesse, 11.
The STRmix software uses a method known as probabilistic genotyping to analyze DNA, and is a departure from traditional DNA analysis methods that have been in use for decades.
STRmix and other probabilistic genotyping programs use algorithms to analyze small amounts and complicated mixtures of DNA that often cannot be analyzed using traditional methods.
The traditional method, known as random match probability, generates a statistic about the probability that a match to a DNA profile can be found in the general population, while probabilistic genotyping generates a ‘likelihood ratio’ that a person of interest could be identified included or excluded as a person. contributor to a DNA mixture.
The Public Defender’s Office is seeking to block the evidence at Caneiro’s trial, as well as the use of STRmix in the future, claiming that the method it uses to analyze DNA is not widely accepted in the scientific community.
Prosecutors want the STRmix evidence admitted at Caneiro’s trial and clear the way for state police to continue using the software in its DNA lab.
Emergency responders responding to a slow-burning fire at Keith Caneiro’s Colts Neck mansion discovered the victims’ bodies on November 21, 2018.
Keith Caneiro had been shot four times in the head and once in the back. Jennifer Caneiro and the two children were stabbed repeatedly and badly burned. Jennifer Caneiro was also shot in the head.
Prosecutors allege Paul Caneiro committed the murders after his brother discovered he was stealing from companies they co-owned. They allege the defendant then set fire to the mansion before returning to his own home in Ocean Township and setting it on fire to make it appear as if the family was being targeted by violent criminals.
DNA that the STRmix program determined was a mixture of Paul and Sophia Caneiro, and another mixture to which Jesse was believed to have contributed, was later found on clothing recovered from the defendant’s basement.
In arguing for the admissibility of the STRmix evidence at Caneiro’s trial, Wallace quoted Michael Coble, one of the DNA experts who testified for the state at the pre-trial hearing.
“Dr. Coble said it best when he said that there are really two types of laboratories in the United States: laboratories that use probabilistic genotyping and laboratories that will use probabilistic genotyping,” Wallace said.
Wallace said STRmix’s multi-jurisdictional reliability is being validated in courtrooms across the country.
“The unanimity of these decisions regarding the evidentiary value of STRmix is compelling,” Wallace argued.
But Christopher Godin of the state’s attorney’s office said New Jersey should demand better.
“New Jersey, I think, has a right to take pride in the fact that it is better than many other jurisdictions in the country when it comes to keeping junk science out of the courtroom,” Godin argued.
While he stopped short of calling STRmix junk science, he continued with a theme raised by his defense experts at the hearing, namely that the software had not been adequately tested nor had it undergone an independent validation and verification process before being released onto it was marketed by ESR, a New Zealand government-owned company, which developed the software.
Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Nicole Wallace makes final oral argument for DNA admissibility in Paul Caneiro murder case
“The question is not whether STRmix is the most tested or the most reliable probabilistic genotyping software on the market today,” Godin said. “The question for this court is: has it been sufficiently tested and whether it is reliable enough.”
Three software engineering experts who testified for the defense agreed that STRmix’s testing was “woefully inadequate,” Godin said.
“STRmix is not subject to independent validation and verification activities that are universally required in the field of software engineering,” he said.
Godin claimed that John Buckleton, an official at ESR and one of the people who developed the STRmix software, was disingenuous when he testified that he and the other developers were not affected by the financial pressures ESR was under when the software was created.
“ESR was in a difficult financial situation; Dr. Buckleton admitted that on the witness stand,” Godin said.
“What we’re dealing with, Your Honor, is a research institute that was struggling financially and that, for lack of a better word, had a bit of a cash cow,” Godin said. “I want to be clear: ESR relied on STRmix to maintain the financial stability of the entire company. That is the environment in which STRMix was first launched in early 2014. In 2014, their return on equity, the benchmark against which they are measured was negative. They tried to turn things around.”
STRmix was launched without undergoing an independent assessment by ESR, Godin argued.
“The company selling this software claims to validate it,” Godin said.
“The court will have to take an extreme step to say this is reliable,” he said.
However, Wallace said the many labs in the United States using the software have done their own internal validation testing.
“There is so much testing going on with STRmix across the country,” she argued.
She offered what she said was a clear example showing that the software works.
Bode Technology, a Virginia-based DNA laboratory that used STRmix to process some of the DNA in the Caneiro case, identified Sophia Caneiro’s DNA in two places from both legs of a pair of jeans found in Paul’s basement Caneiro, Wallace said.
The New Jersey State Police laboratory performed a manual interpretation of the DNA on the jeans without the STRmix program, she said.
“I think what really says a lot about that is that in those results, they placed Sophia on those jeans in five separate areas on both legs: the front, the left shin, the front, the right thigh, the back, the left calf, the front, the left thigh and the front, right shin,” Wallace said. “If that doesn’t speak to STRmix’s ability to do well, then judge, I don’t know what does.”
Lemieux said he will make his ruling by the end of February, if not sooner.
Jury selection for Caneiro’s trial begins March 31.
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This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Ruling on DNA software used in Caneiro murders now in the hands of the judge
