Wisconsin Department of Corrections Outsmarted by Convict

So the Wisconsin DOC was out­smarted by an in-custody pris­oner, who had other peo­ple donate DNA sam­ples and and fingerprints.

“We have rea­son to believe that Walter Ellis con­vinced another inmate to give a DNA sam­ple and an accom­pa­ny­ing fin­ger­print of the other inmate because he did not want to give a sam­ple for rea­sons I think we can now appre­ci­ate,” said Van Hollen.

The switch pre­vented a CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) hit, from link­ing Ellis to ser­ial killings, allow­ing at least one addi­tional vic­tim 6 years later:

If Ellis’ DNA had been in the sys­tem, it might have allowed police to con­nect Ellis to mul­ti­ple mur­ders sooner.

Ouithrean Stokes was killed six years after the DNA switch.

Read the whole tragic story here.