DNA Tests Lead to Suspects in Oxnard Rape Case : Crime: Prosecutors’ use of ‘genetic fingerprints’ is increasing in the county, but critics debate the reliability of the process.

Stepping up Ventura County’s reliance on genetic evidence to catch and convict violent criminals, Oxnard police have used DNA analysis to identify two men suspected of raping and robbing a woman last year.

Since the state Supreme Court cleared the way in January for the use of DNA evidence, the district attorney’s office has introduced such analysis in two murder cases.

And DNA testing has been especially helpful in prosecuting rape cases, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela M. Henke-Dobroth, who supervises the sexual-assault unit.

Such analysis has led to the conviction of half a dozen rapists in the county, Henke-Dobroth said. Three other rape cases involving so-called genetic fingerprinting are pending.

“We are relying on it more and more,” Henke-Dobroth said of the genetic material, which, like fingerprints, is considered unique to the individual. “In cases where identification is an issue, DNA analysis is a godsend.”

In Oxnard, detectives matched blood samples from the two suspects with a semen sample taken from the body of a woman raped Sept. 14 as she and her boyfriend visited the beach at Oxnard Shores.

Detective Edward Neitzel said three men, one armed with a pistol, approached the couple and robbed them of jewelry. Two of the men then raped the woman, while the third held a gun to her boyfriend’s head.

Deputy Dist. Atty. William G. Karr said Friday he has charged Christopher Sattiewhite, 22, of Oxnard with two counts of armed robbery and two counts of armed gang rape.

Karr said similar charges are pending against Frederick Lee Jackson, 23, who is serving time for an unrelated offense at the California Institution for Men in Chino.

Police said the third suspect, Bobby Rollins of Oxnard, was arrested Friday in Oxnard and is being held in the County Jail on suspicion of rape and robbery.

“Without genetic testing, we would have no case,” Neitzel said.

Neitzel said prison officials already require felons, as a condition of parole, to submit blood samples from which genetic identification is extracted and stored in a databank. He said the same is required of enlisting military personnel.

Neitzel said he envisions a day when rapists and other criminals will easily be identified through DNA analysis.

“It’s a long way down the road,” he said. “But it will make our jobs a lot easier.”

Experts say that no two people, aside from identical twins, have the same genetic coding. Genetic material known as DNA--or deoxyribonucleic acid--can be extracted from hair, blood, semen or human tissue left at a crime scene. When investigators compare it with DNA from a suspect, they can offer evidence of guilt or innocence.

Prosecutors around the country are relying increasingly on DNA testing. In California, the Supreme Court opened the door in January by letting stand a precedent-setting state appeals court ruling that DNA evidence was valid and properly used in the 1989 robbery and murder conviction of a Ventura woman, Lynda P. Axell.

But critics still question the reliability of DNA evidence, especially scientific claims that the odds of misidentifying genetic material are 1 in 6 million.

James Matthew Farley, who was Axell’s trial attorney, said Friday he had a Massachusetts Institute of Technology mathematician figure the odds at closer to 1 in 100. In addition, he questioned the impartiality of labs that extract the genetic coding.

“I think it’s an excellent tool for freeing the innocent as well as convicting the guilty,” Farley said. “But in their haste to convict, they jumped on this (technology) too quickly.”

Still, prosecutors applaud the growing use of DNA evidence, saying it continues to be an effective crime-fighting tool.

“Cases are now solved by DNA that could not be solved any other way a few years ago,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Janes, who supervises the major-crimes unit. “It’s like a fingerprint with almost no probability for error at all.”