Lawyer: DNA tests cast doubt on convictions in '85 murder

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BY JOE DUGGAN AND CARA PESEK / Lincoln Journal Star

DNA tests released Friday have proven that two men in prison for a 1985 Beatrice murder did not rape the 68-year-old victim, their attorneys said.

And if the court rules in the men’s favor, they could be the first inmates exonerated under the Nebraska DNA Testing Act of 2000.

Joseph White, 45, and Thomas Winslow, 42, are serving prison sentences in connection with the murder of Helen Wilson.

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Winslow, White

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Mother: DNA results reveal injustice

Mary Winslow, mother of Thomas Winslow, talks about the DNA test results that attorneys say prove her son and Joseph White did not rape Beatrice woman...

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But tests of bodily fluids preserved from the 23-year-old case have cleared the two, their attorneys said.

The DNA samples came from a single, unidentified male that did not match White or Winslow, said Jerry Soucie, an attorney with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy who is representing Winslow.

“I feel there was a great injustice done,” said Mary Winslow, the mother of Thomas Winslow. “I feel not only done to my son … but there was also a great injustice done to the Wilson family because these two men did not rape and kill Mrs. Wilson.”

Soucie and Doug Stratton, a Norfolk attorney who represents White, will file district court motions to vacate convictions in Gage and Jefferson counties.

If a judge grants the motions, White and Winslow could be exonerated. If a judge chooses not to erase the convictions, the motions also ask the courts to consider ordering a new sentence or trial for each man.

Whether the men are quickly released depends, in part, on the response from the prosecution.

Gage County Attorney Randy Ritnour said Friday that just because the DNA evidence cleared the men of rape didn’t mean they should also be cleared of other charges.

But he also said his office would cooperate with defense attorneys.

“We seek justice here, not a win at any costs,” he said. “So if … it turns out the evidence should show that these people are not guilty of this crime, then certainly these people shouldn’t be in jail.”

Ritnour, elected Gage County attorney in 2006, said he spoke to former Gage County Attorney Richard Smith about the case Friday morning. He also planned to meet with investigators from the Gage County Sheriff’s Office and Beatrice Police Department who had worked on the case.

The age of the case will make it more difficult for his office to come up to speed on the specifics of what happened, he said.

But his lack of familiarity with the case isn’t all bad, he said.

“We don’t have a dog in this hunt,” he said. “We want justice done, and we’re not afraid to look at it in an objective manner.”

Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers, who introduced the act, said Friday he was pleased the law has finally done what it was intended to do. DNA testing proves the legal system makes serious mistakes that cost people years of freedom, he said.

“It shows the system is dysfunctional,” Chambers said. “It is not one on which people can rely on justice being done.”

For nearly two decades, those associated with the case believed they had put away Wilson’s killers.

The 68-year-old Beatrice widow was found Feb. 6, 1985, in her apartment, her hands bound, her body severely beaten. An autopsy determined she had suffocated.

The murder happened less than two years after a series of three attacks on elderly women in Beatrice. The women described their attacker as a young adult man with a tall, slim build.

The cases put Beatrice on edge, prompting people to buy door locks and fear a killer in their midst.

Four years after Wilson’s murder, officers began making arrests, eventually charging six people in connection with the crime. Three of them testified that, as a group, they had broken into Wilson’s apartment. They also said White and Winslow took turns raping Wilson while Ada Joann Taylor suffocated her with a pillow.

Taylor, who pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree murder, remains in custody at Community Corrections in Omaha. Her projected date of release is Aug. 9, 2009.

James Dean, Kathy Gonzalez and Debra Shelden were all released from prison in 1994.

The DNA tests, conducted on semen recovered from the crime scene, undermines their testimony, Soucie said. The DNA has not been compared with Dean, but it has been turned over to authorities who can see if it matches any samples in a national criminal DNA database.

“The bottom line is as we sit here today, the individual who sexually assaulted Mrs. Wilson is not in prison,” Soucie said.

Stratton said investigators working on the case found several fingerprints in Wilson’s apartment that matched none of the suspects.

“For all practical purposes, there is no physical evidence” against White and Winslow, Stratton said.

Nonetheless, a Jefferson County District Court jury convicted White of first-degree felony murder in late 1989 and he was sentenced to life in prison. He always maintained he was not present during the break-in and did not rape Wilson, his attorney said Friday.

Winslow pleaded no contest to aiding and abetting second-degree murder in Gage County District Court and was sentenced to 10 to 50 years in prison. Winslow has consistently maintained he had no memory of being in Wilson’s apartment.

The effort to obtain the DNA tests started in May 2005 when White contacted Stratton, who decided to take the case. In the course of his work, Stratton interviewed Winslow and then referred Winslow’s case to Soucie.

Their first attempt to get the tests was rebuked. In 2006, District Judge Vicky Johnson of Wilber ruled that because White was convicted of a murder that occurred during the commission of another felony, such as robbery or burglary, whether he actually raped Wilson wouldn’t change the outcome of the case.

As for Winslow, the judge said he couldn’t ask for DNA testing because he entered a plea to avoid a possible death sentence.

In November 2007, the Nebraska Supreme Court reversed the lower court’s ruling and ordered the DNA tests. The high court ruled the purpose of the DNA Testing Act was to consider evidence “which is favorable to the person in custody and material to the issue of the guilt of the person in custody.”

White, 45, of Cullman, Ala., is at the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln where he has spent 18 years in prison.

Winslow, 42, is serving his sentence at the Omaha Correctional Center. He’s served 19 years and his projected release date is April 27, 2020.

His mother said Friday she never believed her son was capable of such a brutal crime. Even though he has served nearly two decades in prison for it, she detected no anger when she talked to him about the DNA test results.

“Overwhelmed was the word he used,” she said. “I guess his words were ‘I want to be able to clear my heart of any feelings of madness or hate toward anybody.’”

Reach Joe Duggan at 473-7239 or jduggan@journalstar.com. Reach Cara Pesek at 473-7361 or cpesek@journalstar.com.