Fort Worth crime lab investigation spurs request for new trial for convicted murderer
An attorney for an 18-year-old Fort Worth man who pleaded guilty last month to murder and numerous charges of aggravated robbery is seeking a new trial in the wake of the investigation of a forensic scientist in the Fort Worth police crime lab.
Jack Strickland filed the motion Thursday afternoon on behalf of Donnell Ray Page, a Fort Worth man sentenced on March 14 to 45 years in prison for fatally shooting 58-year-old Jose Ontiveros, a taco vendor who tried to intervene during a robbery outside a Fort Worth bar.
As part of the plea bargain, Page also pleaded guilty to five unrelated aggravated robbery cases in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence.
Strickland said he was informed merely hours after the plea that Amanda Schaffner, a forensic scientist in the crime lab’s serology and DNA unit, was under investigation and had been on administrative leave since March 5. Until after the plea hearing, he said, he wasn’t even aware there was any unresolved serology or DNA work done in any of his client’s cases.
“They have not acknowledged what it is, or what testing was involved, if any,” Strickland said Friday. “It’s just a big question mark, and I was not interested in a guy going to the penitentiary for this long on these serious charges with any question marks.”
The Star-Telegram reported last week that Schaffner was placed on leave while internal affairs investigates allegations that she failed to conduct a quality control test, then tried to cover it up. Schaffner, who could not be reached for comment, has denied wrongdoing to lab management.
Strickland attached to his motion hundreds of documents that he had since obtained about the crime lab investigation.
In his motion, Strickland refers to one of those documents, an email sent by Michael Ward, the lab’s forensic science division manager, to Deputy Chief Sharon Kamper. In the March 5 email, Ward tells Kamper that Dawn Boswell, chief of the District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit, had advised the department that no Fort Worth cases involving serology or DNA lab reports would be resolved with pleas or taken to a trial at this time.
“Clearly the understanding which the Fort Worth laboratory believed it had with Ms. Boswell was not honored, with the result that the pleas in question were taken some nine days later, but without any hint of disclosure of the problem to the Court or defense counsel,” Strickland wrote in his motion.
“To make matters worse,” Strickland added, “after speaking with the trial prosecutors on (Page’s) cases, counsel believes that even they, as well as the First Assistant District Attorney for Tarrant County, were unaware of the ongoing investigation and suspension of Ms. Schaffner.”
Samantha Jordan, a spokeswoman with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, said Strickland was notified as soon as the case was identified as one that was potentially impacted.
“All prosecutors were notified of the possibility of Fort Worth crime lab cases being involved in this investigation,” Jordan said.
“As soon as we verified that this case was affected, we let the defense counsel know, and that’s why he was able to file the motion for a new trial.”
Strickland is asking State District Judge Elizabeth Beach to set aside Page’s guilty pleas and conviction and grant him a new trial until the state, crime lab and Forensic Science Commission complete their investigation into Schaffner’s conduct and issue a report.