Murder Defendant’s DNA Found on Victim’s Clothes, Expert Says

By D.C. Witness Staff - February 27, 2019
Court | Daily Stories | Homicides | Suspects |

During a murder trial Feb. 27, a DNA expert told a jury that a defendant’s semen was found on a pair of leggings that was used to bind a 34-year-old woman.

El Hadji Alpha Madiou Toure, 31, is charged with first-degree murder while armed and first-degree sexual abuse, among other offenses, for his alleged role in the stabbing death of Corrina Mehiel on the 600 block of 14th Street, NE in 2017. According to the prosecution, the case is being tried as “especially heinous.”

The expert said there was also DNA found on the waistband of the leggings and on the knots made in the leggings. The DNA was apparently from several different people. 

The expert initially said the DNA was a mixture of at least three people and that at least two males were a part of the mixture. However, during cross-examination, the defense pointed out that the DNA mixture could have come from four or more different people.

The expert said that she tested seven items in connection to Mehiel’s death, including: two shirts, a bath towel, a water bottle, a fitted sheet, a bed sheet and the leggings.

She said the water bottle contained DNA from Mehiel’s boyfriend, who visited Mehiel days before she was killed.

Aside from the water bottle and leggings, the expert said DNA evidence found on the remaining items was “inconclusive or uninterpretable.”

The trial is scheduled to resume on Feb. 28.