New Kensington police say DNA test on discarded beer can helped ID burglary suspect
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New Kensington police say they used a DNA test on saliva from a discarded beer can to help identity a man they charged with stealing cash from his neighbor’s apartment.
Don Levon Graves, 57, of the 300 block of Main Street in New Kensington, was charged with a felony count of burglary along with theft in connection with an incident at the Parnassus Manor apartments on May 9, according to a criminal complaint.
Graves was ordered to stand trial on the charges by District Judge Frank J. Pallone Jr. during a preliminary hearing on Thursday, according to court records.
Police began investigating after a resident of the apartment complex walked into the police station to report that somebody entered his locked apartment while he was attending church and stole $494 of the $500 he had in a dresser drawer, according to a criminal complaint.
Investigators said video from a security camera in the building shows the theft victim leave his second-floor apartment at about 9:42 a.m., the complaint said.
About an hour later, a man is seen on security video walking down the hall away from Grave’s third-floor apartment and place a CVS pharmacy bag into the building’s garbage chute before getting on the elevator.
A minute later the man is seen getting off the elevator on the second floor and walk to the victim’s apartment, where he “jimmies” the door open and enters, according to the complaint.
The suspect is seen leaving the apartment a few minutes later, police said.
While police suspected that Graves was responsible for the theft, they were unable to identify him solely from the security video.
Police obtained a search warrant for the discarded bag thrown down the garbage chute and its contents, which included six empty beer cans.
Video from the security camera at a nearby CVS store shows a man fitting Graves’ description buy items at the store that matched the receipts recovered from the trash, police said.
Police also sent one of the discarded beer cans to a lab for DNA testing and got a search warrant to take a swab of saliva from Grave’s mouth, the complaint said.
Authorities said the DNA test showed that Graves’ saliva is a match for the saliva that was on the beer cans that were discarded before the theft took place.