LITTLE ROCK — A Pulaski County Circuit judge approved a defense request Friday for DNA testing on evidence from the Lee County rape case against the Marianna man accused of killing TV news anchor Anne Pressly. But Curtis Lavelle Vance's defenders don't expect their examination to delay the 28-year-old's November capital-murder trial in Little Rock.
Vance's Pulaski County attorneys won a two-month trial delay in July after reporting that they needed more time to, among other things, conduct their own DNA testing on the capital-murder evidence against Vance. But defense attorney Katherine Streett, one of his three Pulaski County attorneys, said Friday that testing the evidence from Lee County shouldn't delay the murder trial.
"I don't anticipate that ... to cause a delay," she said.
The defense motion filed Friday says Vance's Pulaski County attorneys need to do their own testing on the Lee County evidence, blood and swabs taken from the teacher during a medical exam, to defend him against the rape allegations because Pulaski County prosecutors plan to use the case against Vance in his capital-murder trial.
Judge Chris Piazza approvedthe motion Friday, which would've been Pressly's 27th birthday.
Attorney Bill James, who is representing Vance in Lee County where he's accused of raping a schoolteacher during an April 2008 break-in at her Marianna home, said the Pulaski County defense team is managing the evidence testing in both cases.
"We're doing our testing together," he said. "We're all on the same side."
Pulaski County prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Vance over accusations that he fatally beat Pressly, a KATV, Channel 7, reporter and news anchor, during an October burglary. Pressly, beaten bloody and unconscious, died five days after she was found. Vance also is charged with rape, residential burglary and theft in that case.
Pulaski County defenders hadsought a six-month delay in July, saying they would need more time to test the capital-murder evidence and to prepare for defending Vance from execution if he's convicted. They compared the effort involved in presenting a death-penalty defense with preparing for two trials. Piazza granted the two-month delay but said he was unlikely to approve any more postponements.
Little Rock police linked Vance to the Pressly case through DNA from hair found at her home. The defense is testing the hair and other evidence to challenge the investigator's findings.
Vance was arrested in November on a capital-murder charge, about 4 1 /2 weeks after Pressley died, when Little Rock police said they linked him by DNA to the rape of Kristen Edwards, 33, who had been attacked in her Marianna home in April 2008. Edwards, a Maine native, has since moved out of state.
Arkansas, Pages 11, 17 on 08/29/2009