Chief Deputy Vance Hill received approval from the Brown County Commissioners Court to hire the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Lab to conduct DNA testing of several pieces of evidence in the murder case of Chantay Blankinship.
Blankinship was murdered on Sunday, May 15th and her body was found 5 miles from the North Lake Brownwood Community. Several items, which Hill would not identify due to the ongoing investigation, are thought to have DNA evidence which may be that of Blankinship or from her killer. The items are being taken to the TCME lab for analysis due to the back log of cases at the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab. This back log is expected to take a minimum of 6 months to get any results and hiring a private lab such as TCME will help expedite any findings, possibly receiving results as soon as three weeks, according to Hill. The cost of this analysis by TCME is approximately $5700, which will be funded out of the BCSO’s operations budget. Hill stated that the BCSO has enough in this fund to cover the expense, which County Auditor Jennifer Robison verified.
County Judge Ray West expressed some concern in not utilizing the DPS Crime Lab, for fear of a defense attorney objecting to evidence analysis by a lab other than the DPS lab.
“I would hate for some defense attorney to object to the admissibility of the evidence that you present because it did not come from the DPS Crime Lab,” stated West.
Hill assured West that the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office will have an expert witness that can testify in court. “It’ll be no different, they currently come testify for autopsies that they do for us. We have a working relationship with them,” explained Hill who confirmed that they do testify in their own cases and that the District Attorney supports the decision to use TCME. “They have already collected some of this evidence for us and are maintaining it, maintaining the chain of custody.”Hill explained that TCME is the lab that conducted the autopsy of Blankinship’s body and that the lab has begun preliminary work on some of the evidence gathered to help speed up the process. He explained that he is confident in the work of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s crime lab and that that all evidence analysis will be admissible in court as TCME is very reputable and is an accredited crime lab.
Judge West stated that he understood the importance of timely results, “We see department heads come in for emergency this and emergency that, this is an emergency, we need to put this one on a pedestal, as a perfect example of an emergency.”
Larger counties such as Tarrant, Dallas and Harris have their own crime labs, which are utilized in their own murder and other high profile criminal cases. Hill stated he had not contacted other counties regarding this analysis because Tarrant County had already been involved in this case and that several items of evidence were already in the TCME’s custody.
West stated that this was the second option for poor counties such as Brown County, which cannot afford to have their own crime labs.
“Several of these items of evidence need testing right now,” Hill stated.
Commissioners agreed, expressing their thoughts that time was of the essence and cast a unanimous vote to authorize Hill’s request to utilize the TCME as a private lab.
After the meeting of the court, BCSO Sgt. Scott Bird, who works in criminal investigations, explained that when DPS does analysis of evidence, they file for restitution; however, with a private lab, BCSO will pay for the analysis and then when or if a suspect is developed from the DNA evidence and someone is convicted, then BCSO will file for restitution from the person convicted of the crime.
Bird stated that he has complete confidence in TCME’s lab, “I have no concern at all, they are an accredited facility and they testify in multiple jurisdictions and I have no concerns at all.”
He stated that he will be placing a telephone call to TCME to give authorization to begin the testing today. Bird confirmed he will travel to Fort Worth today to deliver the remaining evidence for analysis.
“I have been talking, nearly daily, to the lab in Tarrant County, telling them what we have, what we need tested, what we are looking to gain from it,” said Bird. “We will have it all to them today. We should have results in about three weeks, which is a lot better than six months.”
In other matters on Monday’s agenda:
*Commissioners took no action regarding a burn ban. There is no ban in place currently; however, Commissioner Joel Kelton of Precinct 2 reminded the public to be cautious when burning because the grasses may get dry enough on top to burn but that the mud would prevent fire trucks from getting through some properties if a fire got out of control.
*District Clerk Cheryl Jones received approval to hire a replacement employee. Jones explained that Diane Newton will replace Jacie Gardner as Deputy Clerk who left the position to stay at home with her newborn child. Newton will receive the starting salary of $22,000 per year and began working on June 1, 2016.
*BCSO Chief Deputy Vance Hill received approval for employee changes including Sgt. Larry Saxton being moved to road crew boss. Saxton is replaced by Nathan Allison at a salary of $22,231 per year.
*Commissioner Wayne Shaw received approval to hire Grady Woodcox as a temporary employee beginning June 7, 2016. Woodcox is a diesel mechanic with blade hand and dozer operator qualifications. Shaw stated that the precinct is backed up with road repair work and spread very thin.
*County Judge Ray West received approval by the court to extend the Brown County Declaration of Disaster which was for 7 days, expiring June 7, 2016, for another ten days, through June 17, 2016. West explained that the process for disaster declaration requires this formal declaration, notification to the governor’s office and then FEMA will get involved and help fund repairs of damage caused by natural disasters such as the recent flooding which damaged many Brown County roads and bridges.
“I want the public to know that several precincts are in very bad shape and it is going to take us a while to get caught up (on road repairs). We know we have lots of terrible, terrible roads with this. If people will bear with us, we will get there,” stated Precinct 4 Commissioner Larry Traweek.
