The case has already resulted in one exoneration and one execution. Muneer Deeb was acquitted and exonerated in 1993, after having originally been sentenced to death in the case. David Wayne Spence was executed in 1997. Spence proclaimed his innocence to the end.
"Judge paves way for DNA hearing in Lake Waco murders," is from the Saturday edition of the Waco Tribune-Herald.
An order issued Friday by a Waco judge could facilitate new DNA testing in a decades-old crime known as the Lake Waco murders.
Local attorney Walter M. Reaves Jr. asked Judge Matt Johnson of the 54th State District Court for the order, which is aimed at compelling a California DNA scientist to turn over evidence related to the case. The scientist has ignored repeated requests to return the evidence and Reaves thinks he found a legal mechanism to get it back.
Reaves represents Anthony Melendez, the only living defendant in the 1982 slayings that claimed the lives of three teenagers.
Local attorney Walter M. Reaves Jr. is asking for an order to mandate the release of evidence related to the case.
The 52-year-old is serving 2 life sentences after pleading guilty to the murders, but he has since recanted.
“It’s a step closer to getting (the evidence) back so we can at least try to do some additional testing,” Reaves said. “I’m hoping we’re going to be able to obtain actual DNA evidence and that it excludes (Melendez), as well as the other (defendants).”
"Judge OKs Effort To Further DNA Testing In Lake Waco Triple Murder Case," from KWTX-TV.
A state district judge Friday gave Walter “Skip” Reaves, the attorney representing Anthony Melendez, 52, the last surviving defendant in the Lake Waco triple murder case, an OK to proceed with an effort to have further DNA tests performed on evidence collected during the investigation of the 1982 slayings of three teenagers.
Reaves and author Fredric Dannen arranged on their own for a private lab in California to do DNA testing, but that lab now refuses to allow them to transfer testing to another facility where different methods could produce better results.
The ruling Friday clears the way for Reaves proceed with an effort to try to compel the transfer of testing.
McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna didn’t oppose the motion Friday, but said he reserves judgment about whether he’ll fight additional testing.
Reaves has said he hopes the evidence will ultimately exclude Melendez and perhaps identify the real killer.
And:
Melendez and his brother Gilbert were sentenced to two life terms after pleading guilty to charges stemming from the murders.
Gilbert Melendez died in prison in October 1998.
David Wayne Spence, who prosecutors said was hired by Waco store owner Muneer Mohammad Deeb to kill a female employee, Gayle Kelley, in order to collect on her insurance policy, but who mistook Montgomery for the woman and killed her and the other two teenagers in a case of mistaken identity, was executed in April 1997.
"Lake Waco murderer seeking new evidence," by Adam Shear for KXXV-TV.
One of the three men convicted in the famous 1982 Lake Waco Murders is attempting to use DNA evidence that he believes might prove his innocence.
Anthony Melendez, who originally pled guilty to two of the three murders at Lake Waco, believes that DNA evidence that was not originally available because the technology to test did not exist could get him out of his current sentence.
Related posts are in the DNA index.
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