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TOWN of NEW HARTFORD ONEIDA COUNTY
NEW HARTFORD POLICE DEPARTMENT 32 KELLOGG ROAD, NEW HARTFORD, NEW YORK 13413-2850 Telephone: 1-315-733-6666 Fax: 1-315-724-8618
- - - - - Press Release - - - - -
December 29, 2009
EVIDENCE IN CORR TRIAL NOT TAINTED BY LAB TECHNICIAN
Forensic evidence from the murder trial of convicted New Hartford Cop-Killer Toussaint Davis was not tainted by negligence of a now-deceased State Lab Technician in Albany. That’s the finding of a State probe and the conclusion of the Oneida County District Attorney’s Office.
According to New Hartford Police Chief Raymond L. Philo, the State Inspector General’s Office initiated an investigation into improper practices at the Trace Evidence Station of the Forensic Lab led to the May, 2008 suicide of 59 year-old lab technician Gary Veeder. The results of the investigation were released recently revealing a 29 percent deficiency rate in Veeder’s cases. The Inspector General said that “Veeder routinely failed to conduct a required test, and a “dry-labeled” by fraudulently presenting results without actually performing the test.”
The Trace Evidence Section of the Lab deals with fibers, impression evidence such as footprints and tire tracks, and evidence from arson cases.
On February 27, 2006, the evening of the Lennon’s & W. B. Wilcox Jewelry Store robbery and the murder of Officer Joseph Corr, a New Hartford Police Forensic Evidence Technician located and removed for analysis, fiber evidence from a jewelry case in the store. This fiber evidence was subsequently analyzed by Veeder in the State Forensic Lab.
Veeder testified in the murder trial of Toussaint Davis in January 2007. He testified that the fabric of the glove, which was found with Davis, was similar to the fibers found by New Hartford Police at the Jewelry Store.
Veeder’s negligence “is not going to have any effect on the Corr murder case”, said Assistant District Attorney Kurt D. Hameline. Hameline was the prosecutor in the case, and called Veeder as a witness. According to Chief Philo, the fiber evidence from the Jewelry Store was such a “minor” piece of evidence. “After Veeder’s suicide the glove was re-tested by an independent lab, and there were no problems found with it.”
Toussaint Davis was eventually found guilty in Corr’s murder and robbery, and is serving 300 years to life in State prison.
He is also facing federal charges in the murder of Officer Corr and the robbery of the Lennon’s W. B. Wilcox Jewelry Store. The investigation into Officer Corr’s murder is extremely complicated, and is part of a multi-state investigation, involving the New Hartford Police, The U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, and other law enforcement agencies, according to Chief Philo. Davis, along with the two remaining co-defendants, are expected to face trial in Federal Court, later in 2010.
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