JUL 1, 2021
Case of the death of 13-year-old Hania Aguilar returns to court | Robesonian
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McLellan joined the Thursday hearing via video call because of issues related to transportation back to Central Prison in Raleigh after the hearing, according to his attorneys. ... McLellan wore a yellow polo shirt and sat quietly during the hearing, only answering court officials when spoken to.
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McLellan’s defense attorneys, Harold Pope and Geoffrey Hosford, asked for the full case file from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s lab records, including physical evidence such as DNA. Pope said the team has deployed a “company with forensic biologists, geneticists, DNA specialists” to review the evidence. The FBI already has released the lab report.
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The items listed in the request are the full output from the FBI’s STRmix program used to interpret (DNA) results, all temporaneous FBI lab protocol standard operating procedures from DNA and zoology testing, FBI lab quality assurance manual, the most recent lab audit results and any and all photographs from investigating agencies, according to Pope.
“Once we have that information, we can provide that to our doctors, experts then they may provide us with a complete file report and assessment of evidence. Whether or not we may need retesting, we don’t know at this point,” he said.
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If additional testing is needed, the motion to preserve evidence will come into play, Pope said.
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Pope said a motion had been filed earlier to review evidence in the custody of the police department. In the past, he and Osman agreed on dates and met with the evidence custodian for other cases, Pope said.
Osman said he just suggested the defense notify the district attorney’s office of a date and time. He does not have to be present during the defense’s review with the evidence custodian, the assistant district attorney said.
An administrative hearing is set for Sept. 7.