Prosecutor Says Blood-Spattered Shoe Ties 2 Brothers to Killing

A blood-spattered shoe links two brothers to the 1988 killing of an Oxnard teen-ager, a Ventura County prosecutor said Monday.

And Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn can use genetic evidence to prove that link, Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch ruled.

Storch, presiding at the murder trial of Alexander and Gregory Hines, expressed satisfaction that so-called “genetic fingerprinting” is reliable and is widely accepted in the scientific community.

Such evidence is based on the belief that each person has a unique genetic code that distinguishes blood and tissue.

Genetic evidence has been allowed twice before in Ventura County cases.

Glynn said the genetic evidence is only part of the case that he will present against the Hines brothers.

In his opening statement, Glynn said Gregory Hines, 20, was a friend of victim Jorge Rosales. In the early hours of July 16, 1988, however, a party at Gregory Hines’ garage apartment turned into a brawl in which the brothers’ mother, Beatrix Haynes, was struck by a beer bottle. She later lost an eye, Glynn said.

The brothers blamed 17-year-old Rosales for the injury, Glynn said. About 4 a.m., he said, the three left the hospital where the mother was being treated. About two hours later, only the brothers returned. Shortly afterward, a fieldworker found Rosales’ body near the Ventura Freeway and Central Avenue in Camarillo.

“They shot him once in the face with the shotgun,” Glynn said. “Then they forced the muzzle into his mouth and fired again.”

The brothers were arrested the next day, Glynn said, but there was insufficient evidence to hold them. When they were released, they fled, the prosecutor said.

Alexander Hines, 32, later turned up in Woodland, Calif., where he was convicted of a sexual-assault charge and sentenced to 18 years in prison. Gregory Hines eluded authorities until December, when he was picked up in Minnesota.

Glynn said both genetic and enzyme tests will show that the blood on one of Gregory Hines’ shoes came from Rosales’ body. Also, he said, investigators found a shotgun shell casing at the scene that came from Gregory Hines’ gun, and a footprint that matched Gregory Hines’ shoe.

Gregory Hines’ attorney, Charles L. Cassy, made no opening statement. But Deputy Public Defender Robert Willey, who represents Alexander Hines, urged the jurors to take note of flaws in the prosecution’s case.

He said the matching footprint was found some distance from the body and that there were many other footprints in the area that did not match either defendant’s shoes.

In addition, he said, car tracks at the scene did not match those from Alexander Hines’ vehicle.

The brothers are being held on $250,000 bail each.