An Indiana judge plans to make a major decision in a 20-year-old cold case in Charlestown.
The case was reopened last year after Charlestown Police Department said new evidence lead them to a suspect, David Hollowell. Hollowell is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in 2003 and shooting her stepfather who tried to save her.
Police said they received a tip last year that the suspect was either David or his two brothers.
After testing DNA, investigators determined his brothers were not involved, but closely related to the perpetrator. They later used the process of elimination to arrest David.
However, Defense Attorney Mickey Weber argues the evidence isn't strong enough to keep his client behind bars.
Weber says investigators originally gained DNA by "illegally searching" David's brother Dennis' belongings.
"They didn't ask for a warrant, they didn't ask for Dennis' permission to get his DNA," Weber said. "They just wiped it off while he was at work, and pulled him over and pretended it was for one reason, but really it was so they can take his driver's license to swab it for DNA."
Weber says investigators then used the analysis as a reason to get DNA from David once he was arrested.
He also adds prosecutors have yet to confirm if Dennis and David are biological brothers.
"In their enthusiasm in thinking they finally had an opportunity to solve this old case, they've ignored some glaring problems in the information they had," Weber said. "There are materials they can go out and investigate to confirm David and Dennis are full biological siblings. Or at least rule out the possibility that they're not. And they haven't done any of that."
Weber says he hopes Judge Nicholas Karaffa throws out David's DNA and releases him from jail ahead of trial.
Karaffa says he will have a decision by Thursday night.
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