Prosecutors can’t get a DNA sample from a Virginia former Marine — who is convicted of rape and charged with murder — to do another forensic test that could further link him to the killing of two young girls in Illinois, a judge has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady ruled Friday that federal prosecutors in Alexandria can’t obtain the DNA sample from 22-year-old Jorge A. Torrez because it isn’t relevant to their case that he killed Petty Officer 2nd Class Amanda J. Snell while the two were stationed at Fort Myers-Henderson Hall in 2009.
Torrez, a former Marine corporal, has been linked through DNA to the 2005 slayings of 8-year-old Laura Hobbs and 9-year-old Krystal Tobias in Zion, Ill., where he used to live. Virginia prosecutors asked a judge to force Torrez to give a DNA sample to see if it matches another type of DNA profile that a laboratory analyzed when examining evidence in the Illinois killings. Prosecutors said in court papers they intended to use information about the Zion killings at Torrez’s sentencing if he is convicted in Snell’s death.
Grady said he knew of no other cases in which authorities were allowed to gather evidence solely for use at sentencing. Defense attorney Geremy Kamens called the request “unprecedented.”
Prosecutors could pursue the death penalty for Torrez, but have not filed a notice about whether they plan to do so.
Torrez is already serving five life sentences after he was convicted in two Arlington County assaults.
Laura Hobbs’s father, Jerry, spent five years in jail awaiting trial in the slayings of the two girls before charges against him were dropped last year.
