Resendez DNA Appears to Match Evidence

Preliminary results show a match between DNA found at the scene of a slaying in Texas and a DNA sample taken from the suspected “railroad killer,” the Houston Chronicle reported Saturday.

Quoting an anonymous source, the Chronicle said laboratory tests on a sample taken from Angel Maturino Resendez have linked him to DNA recovered from the home of victim Claudia Benton.

The DNA analysis is being conducted at a Houston laboratory of the Texas Department of Public Safety, but a spokesman for that agency declined to comment on reports of an early match.

The 39-year-old Mexican national, who turned himself in to U.S. authorities Tuesday after a nationwide manhunt, is a suspect in at least nine killings in the United States.

Maturino Resendez has already been charged with murder in one death in Texas, one in Kentucky and two in Illinois.

Authorities say they have identified his palm and fingerprints at several of the crime scenes and have recovered property stolen from the victims at the home of his common-law wife in northern Mexico.

Prosecutors who filed a capital murder charge against him in Cass County in rural northeastern Texas said they would seek the death penalty against him.

Maturino Resendez is being held in an isolation cell at Harris County Jail in downtown Houston.

He was arraigned in Houston earlier this week on a charge of burglary involving the break-in at Benton’s home. Harris County prosecutors said they expect to file a capital murder charge against him in that case once full results of the DNA tests are available.

Diplomats from the Mexican Consulate in Houston visited Maturino Resendez in jail Friday and agreed, at his request, to assist his court-appointed defense attorneys.

One of his two attorneys, Allen Tanner, said the suspected serial killer is depressed about the prospect of execution.

“He’s not mad at the thought that they might seek the death penalty; he’s just real sad. He’s very depressed,” Tanner said.

-- UNPUBLISHED NOTE --

Stories after July 30, 1999 use the spelling Angel Maturino Resendiz.

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