Scent Machine Leads to Murder Conviction

In a murder case unprecedented in California because it hinged largely on evidence from a scent machine, a jury on Thursday convicted a 20-year-old man of killing an Irvine woman nearly three years ago.

Earl Rhoney, who was a high school student at the time of the slaying, now faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of Patricia Lea Pratt, 46.

“You took a bad, bad person off the streets,” the victim’s husband, Paul Pratt, told jurors as they hugged one another and wept outside the courtroom after the verdict was read.

A bloodhound identified Rhoney from scent extracted from the victim’s sweatshirt, preserved for nine months in an evidence freezer.

Investigators used a vacuum device that draws human scent from fabric, concentrates it, then transfers it to a gauze pad. It allows investigators to carry the scent to a bloodhound in the field without risking contamination of a key piece of evidence such as a victim’s clothing.

Police targeted Rhoney, then 17, as a suspect two weeks after the slaying when he was linked to another burglary. A bloodhound named Duchess and her trainer, Larry Harris, were called in a few weeks later to help with the investigation.

On the day of Rhoney’s release from Orange County Juvenile Hall in Orange, where he had served time on burglary and weapons charges, Duchess and Harris were waiting outside.

Investigators unsealed the gauze pad and gave it to the dog to sniff. Within minutes, Duchess picked a surprised Rhoney out of a crowd across the street at a shopping center.

The use of bloodhound tracking evidence has long been established in courts across the nation as acceptable as long as certain conditions are met. But the Pratt case marked the first time that evidence from a scent machine had been admitted in a California murder trial, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Debbie Lloyd, who prosecuted the case.

Prosecutors contended that Rhoney was burglarizing Pratt’s home Jan. 20, 1994, when she returned from a walk and surprised him. Her husband found her strangled and bludgeoned body when he returned home from a business meeting at about midnight.

The murder trial lasted 2 1/2 months, with much of the testimony hinging on technical aspects of bloodhound tracking and the machine. After a day and a half of deliberations, jurors found Rhoney, who was being tried as an adult, guilty of first-degree murder.

Upon leaving the courtroom, jurors had an emotional encounter with Paul Pratt and the victim’s mother, 79-year-old Beatrice Kell. Both had faithfully attended the trial sessions.

The verdict included a finding that the slaying occurred during a burglary, which makes Rhoney eligible for life in prison without parole when he is sentenced Jan. 30. He is not eligible for the death penalty because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime.

Deputy Public Defender Sharon Petrosino contended that the scent machine was unreliable and said Rhoney will seek a new trial.