FREEHOLD -- An assistant prosecutor argued Friday the cutting-edge computer software that generated DNA evidence in one of Monmouth County's most high-profile murder cases has been deemed reliable in courtrooms across the county and should now be accepted in New Jersey.
But a defense attorney for Paul Caneiro, who is charged with the murders of his brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephew, argued that the software is not trustworthy enough to decide the fate of criminal defendants because it was rushed to market without adequate, independent testing by a company struggling to turn its finances around.
Now, Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux, Monmouth County's assignment judge, will decide whether the DNA evidence generated by computer software known as STRmix will be admitted at Caneiro's upcoming trial.
His ruling will have statewide implications for the software, as it has never before been challenged in a New Jersey court.
Attorneys for the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office and New Jersey Public Defender's Office summed up their arguments Friday in a weeks-long pretrial hearing in the Caneiro case on whether DNA evidence analyzed by the STRmix computer software will be admissible when the 57-year-old Ocean Township man stands trial next year in the murders of his brother, Keith, 50; sister-in-law Jennifer, 45; niece Sophia, 8; and nephew Jesse, 11.
The STRmix software uses a method known as probabilistic genotyping to analyze DNA, deviating from traditional methods of DNA analysis that have been in use for decades.
STRmix and other probabilistic genotyping programs use algorithms to analyze small amounts and complicated mixtures of DNA that often can't be analyzed by traditional methods.
The traditional method know as random match probability generates a statistic on the probability a match to a DNA profile can be found in the general population, while probabilistic genotyping generates a 'likelihood ratio" that a person of interest can either be included or excluded as a contributor to a DNA mixture.
The Pubic Defender's Office is seeking to block the evidence at Caneiro's trial, as well as the use of STRmix going forward, asserting the method it uses to analyze DNA is not generally accepted in the scientific community.
Prosecutors are looking to have the STRmix evidence admitted at Caneiro's trial and clear the way for the state police to continue using the software in its DNA lab.
Emergency workers responding to a slow-burning fire at Keith Caneiro's Colts Neck mansion discovered the bodies of the victims on Nov. 21, 2018.
Keith Caneiro had been shot four times in the head and once in the back. Jennifer Caneiro and the two children were repeatedly stabbed and badly burned. Jennifer Caneiro also was shot in the head.
Prosecutors allege Paul Caneiro committed the murders after his brother found out he was stealing from businesses they co-owned. They allege the defendant then set fire to the mansion before returning to his own home in Ocean Township and setting it ablaze to make it look like the family was being targeted by violent thugs.
DNA that the STRmix program determined to be a mixture from Paul and Sophia Caneiro, and another mixture to which Jesse was deemed to be a contributor, was later found on clothing recovered from the defendant's basement.
In arguing for the admissibility of the STRmix evidence at Caneiro's trial, Wallace quoted Michael Coble, one of the DNA experts who testified for the state at the pretrial hearing.
"Dr. Coble said it best when he said there really are two types of labs in the United States - those that use probabilistic genotyping and those that will be using probabilistic genotyping," Wallace said.
Wallace said the reliability of STRmix has been upheld in multiple jurisdictions in courtrooms throughout the country.
"The unanimity of those decisions with respect to the evidential reliability of STRmix is persuasive," Wallace argued.
But Christopher Godin of the Public Defender's Office said New Jersey should demand better.
"New Jersey, I think, has a right to be proud of being better than a lot of other jurisdictions in the country in terms of keeping junk science out of courtrooms," Godin argued.
While falling short of calling STRmix junk science, he continued on a theme his defense experts presented throughout the hearing that the software was not adequately tested nor did it undergo an independent validation and verification process before it was brought to market by ESR, a company owned by the New Zealand government, which developed the software.
"The question is not whether STRmix is the most tested or the most reliable probabilistic genotyping software on the market today," Godin said. "The question for this court is, has it been tested enough and whether it is reliable enough."
Three software engineering experts who testified for the defense agreed that the testing of STRmix was "woefully inadequate," Godin said.
"STRmix has not been subject to independent validation and verification activities that are universally required in the software engineering field," he said.
Godin asserted that John Buckleton, an official with ESR and one of the people who developed the STRmix software, was disingenuous when he testified he and the other developers were not influenced by financial pressures ESR was experiencing when the software was being created.
"ESR had been in a difficult financial situation; Dr. Buckleton admitted that on the stand," Godin said.
"What we're dealing with, your honor, is a crown research institute that was struggling financially and that had, for lack of a better word, a bit of a cash cow," Godin said. "I want to be clear - ESR was relying on STRmix to maintain the financial stability of the entire company. That is the environment in which STRMix was first commercialized in the beginning of 2014. In 2014, their return on equity, which is the metric they are measured against, was negative. They were trying to turn things around."
STRmix was brought to market without undergoing a review independent of ESR, Godin argued.
"The company that is selling this software is the one that is claiming to validate it," Godin said.
"The court is going to have to walk out on a limb to say this is reliable," he said.
Wallace, however, said the many labs throughout the United States that are using the software have done their own internal validation tests.
"There's so much testing of STRmix across the country," she argued.
She offered what she said is a clear example that demonstrates the software works.
Bode Technology, a Virginia-based DNA laboratory that used STRmix to process some of the DNA in the Caneiro case, identified Sophia Caneiro's DNA on two places of both legs of a pair of jeans found in Paul Caneiro's basement, Wallace said.
The New Jersey State Police lab performed a manual interpretation of the DNA on the jeans without the STRmix program, she said.
"I think what's really telling about that is that in those results, they put Sophia on those jeans in five separate areas on both legs - the front, left shin, the front, right thigh, the rear, left calf, the front, left thigh and the front, right shin," Wallace said. "If that doesn't speak to STRmix's ability to get it right, judge, I don't know what does."
Lemieux said he will issue his ruling by the end of February, if not sooner.
Jury selection for Caneiro's trial is scheduled to begin March 31.
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