LOS ANGELES : 30-Year-Old Fingerprints Verified in Murder Case

A retired Los Angeles Police Department fingerprint technician testified Wednesday that there is “no question” that numerous police fingerprint cards being used as evidence in a 30-year-old murder case are the same ones he prepared at the crime scene three decades ago.

The testimony of Arnold J. Sauro, who left the department in 1978, is important because the defense has indicated it will challenge the usefulness of the fingerprint cards and whether the LAPD maintained proper custody of them through the years.

Fingerprints are the only evidence linking the defendant, 48-year-old Vernon Robinson, a building maintenance company executive at the time of his arrest, to the death of the victim, Thora Marie Rose, 43.

Rose was strangled and bludgeoned to death Oct. 3, 1963, in her Hollywood apartment during what police believe was a burglary and sexual assault. Robinson was 18 years old at the time.