Prince Didn’t Fit Manhunt’s Profile

Cleophus Prince Jr., charged in the slayings of six San Diego women, was discounted as a suspect by investigators last year because of his cool demeanor, his lack of a violent history and confusion over his blood type, San Diego police officials said Friday.

Prince, 23, was arrested in March in his hometown of Birmingham, Ala., after police were able to match DNA characteristics of his blood and saliva samples with semen found on the clothing of Janene Marie Weinhold, the second victim.

Police interviewed Prince less than an hour after the third killing in the series, that of Holly Suzanne Tarr, in April, 1990, and again the next day.

According to a profile of the killer produced by the FBI, police investigators were expecting “someone agitated and upset, but Prince was quite cool,” said Sgt. Ed Petrick, one of the chief investigators on the case.

The slayer also was suspected of being a sex offender with an aggressive and violent past, characteristics that do not fit Prince, Petrick said.

“There was nothing we could do at the point we interviewed him,” Petrick said. “He didn’t look that good. He had none of the (FBI profile) indicators.”

Pushing Prince further down the list was a miscalculation about his blood type. A month after Tarr’s murder, police discovered from Prince’s Navy records that he had an A classification. Semen obtained from Weinhold’s clothing showed an O type, the same as the victim’s.

Detectives assumed the suspect also had an O type and began discounting those who did not. When Prince was arrested last February and police took blood and saliva samples, they discovered he was a “non-secretor,” meaning that his body does not secrete an enzyme used for typing blood. About 30% of the population is in that category.

Police have refused to say whether or not they asked Prince for a blood sample when they first questioned him or whether they relied on his Navy records for a blood classification, as it now appears. However, 700 suspects voluntarily provided blood samples to San Diego police, and investigators methodically scratched all but those with type O blood from the list.

In order to obtain blood and saliva samples from Prince without his permission, police would have needed probable cause to do so, the same level of proof necessary to arrest him. Petrick said they had no such proof.

They did have circumstantial evidence to link Prince to the killings: he lived near four of the victims; he was identified by a neighbor after the third killing; he signed his name directly below Tarr’s on a swimming pool guest book; and was spotted near the scenes on other occasions.

After the second murder, Petrick said, investigators were looking for someone “described as medium athletic to having a scrawny build, at least in the forearms” by witnesses. Prince, who worked out frequently with weights, has a muscular build, particularly in his forearms.

“We layered the suspects and prioritized them and removed the ones that we could unequivocally eliminate,” Petrick said. “He ended up in the group that we’d be taking a second look at.”

Prince’s attorney, Loren Mandel, said the issue of his client being a “non-secretor” adds nothing to the prosecutor’s case and, if anything, helps the defense because “the real killer could be a non-secretor and he could have an O blood type,” the same as Weinhold’s.

Mandel said the government is relying almost solely on the DNA match, “which is not very good evidence in a case of this kind,” and numerous charges of burglary, battery, assault and indecent exposure. In all, Prince faces 26 charges.

“If (Prince) is the person they’re looking for, and we maintain he is not, why didn’t they arrest him long before they did,” Mandel said. “Why did they eliminate him as a suspect? No matter what they say, they did eliminate him.”

Assistant Chief Cal Krosch said a ring taken from Tarr has definitively been identified as the piece of jewelry that Prince gave to his girlfriend, Charla M. Lewis, as a Christmas gift. Lewis and Prince lived together in San Diego from December, 1989, until the time of his arrest.

Prince is charged with six murders from January to September of 1990 in Clairemont, University City and East San Diego. His arrest in Alabama was preceded by the largest police manhunt in San Diego’s history.