PHOENIX (AP) — A man accused of being the so-called Baseline Killer tried to obscure his DNA during a sexual assault on two sisters by rubbing dirt on one victim’s body, a prosecutor told jurors yesterday.
But “as much as he tried, he could not hide his DNA,” Deputy County Attorney Suzanne Cohen said during opening statements in the trial of former construction worker Mark Goudeau.
He is being tried on 19 charges, including sexual assault, all but one stemming from the September 2005 attack on the two sisters. A sexual-abuse count was recently dropped.
Defense lawyer Corwin Townsend disputed the prosecutor’s account and told jurors that there was no DNA match that connected Mr. Goudeau to the crime. The analysis concluded only that Mr. Goudeau “cannot be excluded” as a source of the DNA, he said.
Neither sister was able to identify Mr. Goudeau in photo lineups before or shortly after his arrest, Mr. Townsend said. The sisters, one of whom previously identified another man, said they recognized Mr. Goudeau only several months after the attack, he said.
“They have the wrong man,” Mr. Townsend said.
The trial, expected to last until late August, is the first of two for Mr. Goudeau. A second trial that includes nine murder counts has not been scheduled. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The prosecutor’s sex assault case stems from a police investigation of the Baseline Killer, a serial predator named for the southern Phoenix street where many of the early attacks took place. Police say he struck August 2005 to June 2006.
Mr. Goudeau, 42, who lived near where many of the attacks happened, was arrested Sept. 6. Police said DNA evidence linked him to the attack on the two sisters a year earlier in a southern Phoenix park. That DNA link promises to be a major point of contention during the trial.
Mr. Townsend wanted to conduct his own test of a key sample, but government DNA technicians used up the original swab they say linked Mr. Goudeau to the attack. The lawyer called for the case to be dismissed because of the lack of evidence available for an independent analysis. But Judge Andrew Klein rejected that request based on prosecutors’ assertions that Mr. Townsend could still test a DNA “extraction” from the original police investigation.
Mr. Townsend also tried and failed to move the case out of the Phoenix area, arguing that intense media attention has tainted potential jurors.
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