New DNA evidence has halted a trial set to begin Monday in a 5-year-old murder case of a Hot Springs Village police dispatcher.
On Thursday, 18th Judicial Circuit Judge Homer Wright rescheduled the first-degree murder trial of Kevin Duck, 33, to begin on March 27 at the Garland County courthouse in Hot Springs.
Duck was arrested Nov. 25, 2013, nearly two years after his girlfriend Dawna Natzke’s body was found Dec. 31, 2011, submerged in a pond near the Jessieville community in northern Garland County.
An autopsy determined that Natzke, 46, died by blunt-force trauma and drowning.
In a motion filed Wednesday to delay the trial, defense lawyer T. Clay Janske said “DNA test results are not back” from the state Crime Laboratory and that more time was needed to discuss additional evidence that the prosecution delivered Wednesday morning.
A warrant issued Nov. 25, 2013, relied heavily on phone records and witness testimony regarding Duck’s whereabouts as evidence supporting his arrest. No DNA evidence was cited in the warrant.
Garland County chief deputy prosecutor Joe Graham said in an interview Thursday that “there was some testing that was discovered that needed to be done. As far as details about it, I can’t say anything further.”
Janske said Thursday that it is his understanding that when the prosecution was preparing for trial recently officials found “some sort of piece of DNA.”
“Whether or not they believe it to be helpful to their case or not, I don’t know,” Janske said. “But I believe that the DNA is going to help my client. Or it may be immaterial. That’s why I asked for a continuance. My understanding was when he actually gave his sample last Thursday, they were going to put a rush on it.”
Graham said Thursday that he feels strongly that the case will go to trial in March.
“We have made sure all our experts are open for those dates. There shouldn’t be a conflict,” Graham said. “You can never rule out anything unforeseen. The judge will be hesitant to grant any more continuances, and we definitely don’t want to agree to any more.”
Also in relation to the case, on Jan. 23, a transport order requested by the prosecution was issued for Jonathan Berks, an inmate with Duck at the Department of Correction’s Wrightsville Unit. Berks was convicted of second-degree murder and aggravated residential burglary charges out of Garland County.
When asked Berk’s role in the trial, Graham declined to elaborate.
Janske said the defense team has not had a chance to interview Berks to find out what he will say at the trial.
“We don’t believe it’s anything,” Janske said. “I don’t know. We speculate he’s a jailhouse snitch trying to get out of trouble.”
The case — which was first set from for July 22-25 in 2014 — has been rescheduled seven times. The defense requested six of those delays.
At issue in nearly all of the motions were telephone triangulation records that detail the calls Duck reportedly has made since Natzke disappeared Dec. 22, 2011.
Janske said he believes that Duck has a “very good” defense against the charges. “This investigation was focused on only one person,” he said.
Graham said the state “definitely” has a sturdy case against Duck. “If we didn’t think we had a strong case, we wouldn’t go forward,” he said.