Fingerprints lead to arrest of 20-year fugitive

Keith Paul

Monday, Nov. 6, 2000 | 11:41 a.m.

The facade of David Finn's life was stripped away by a drunken driving arrest and the one thing he could never change -- his fingerprints.

The swirls on his fingers gave away the secret he had been desperately trying to keep. Finn is really David Doyle, who had been on the run for two decades, trying to avoid a 20-year prison sentence in Arizona.

When Metro Police's fugitive detectives surrounded his car Thursday near his suburban home on Whispering Sands Avenue, he knew it was over.

"He said he knew it was coming some time," Detective John Sias of the fugitive squad said. "He was married and has children, but as far as we could tell they knew zero about his past."

His wife, reached at their home, refused to comment.

Doyle -- living as Finn in Las Vegas for nearly 10 years -- was arrested Aug. 17 on a charge of driving while intoxicated by a Metro Police officer. Since he was living as Finn, he was released from the Clark County jail.

But like all others entering the jail, he was fingerprinted. The results were sent to the FBI's fingerprint repository in West Virginia where a match was made.

Doyle, 58, was convicted in Yuma County, Ariz., of sexual assault with a firearm and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But a judge released Doyle to allow him to get his affairs in order before going to prison, said Sgt. T.J. Larios of the Yuma County sheriff's office fugitive squad.

"A lot of old judges back then did that," he said. "They'd cut them loose, and half the people never came back."

Doyle was one of those.

He fled to Europe, Larios said, and police were never able to catch up with him.

A couple of weeks ago the FBI contacted Yuma County detectives with the news that Doyle's fingerprints had turned up under the name of Finn, who had been arrested in Las Vegas on a DWI charge.

Doyle had been released from the Clark County jail by the time the prints gave away his secret and had returned to his life in Las Vegas.

Doyle told police he made a living in Las Vegas gambling.

When he was taken into custody Thursday, he was cooperative, Sias said.

Larios said he was surprised when he received the call about Doyle after all these years.

"We put him on the FBI wanted list 20 years ago, but after all this time you kind of give up," Larios said. "You figure he died or stayed out of the country."

The FBI has a database of 35 million fingerprints. Each year local police and jails send more prints for identification and to be added to the database, said Special Agent Joseph Dickey, a spokesman for the Las Vegas FBI office.

The Doyle case "is exactly what the system can do. It extremely hard to change one's fingerprints to elude authorities," Dickey said.

Doyle will be held without bond in the Clark County jail until Yuma County detectives take him back to Arizona.

"He's gonna regret (not returning for his sentence) now. He's got the full 20 years to do," Larios said. "You have to give him credit for staying that long, but we have the last laugh."