DNA test approved for inmate

Kim Smith

Monday, July 9, 2001 | 10:17 a.m.

A Las Vegas man serving multiple life sentences for the rape and attempted murder of a former neighbor has won the right to have his DNA compared to evidence from the 11-year-old attack.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon, however, believes the tests will only serve to confirm Albert Nathaniel Lee's guilt.

Although it could be the first time a Clark County District Court judge has approved a defense request for DNA, Herndon said District Judge Kathy Hardcastle made it clear she was not trying to set a precedent.

Instead, Herndon said, Hardcastle made her decision based solely on the facts in the Lee case. She also thought the testing would reaffirm the public's faith in the judicial system.

Lee, 37, was sentenced to four consecutive life terms, plus an additional eight years in prison, in connection with a December 1989 attack on a 33-year-old woman.

According to court documents, the woman told police that Lee knocked on her door and pushed his way in. A few moments later, she said, he choked her into unconsciousness using his arm.

When she awoke, the woman said she had a plastic grocery sack over her head and she realized she had been sexually assaulted. A few seconds later someone began sawing at her neck and wrists with a knife.

She feigned her death, and when the intruder left, she managed to lock her door and crawl upstairs to call 911.

Jurors convicted Lee after hearing the testimony of the victim and a handful of neighbors who said they saw Lee in the apartment complex around the time of the attack.

The jurors had also learned that Lee could not be excluded as a suspect through blood tests, and he had told a friend about impulsively slashing a woman's throat during a fight.

Lee began asking for DNA testing in a federal lawsuit filed last October by his attorney, Mace Yampolsky, and the Innocence Project, which was founded by former O.J. Simpson attorney Barry Scheck. Yampolsky was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

Because the woman couldn't see her attacker through the grocery sack, Lee's defense attorneys argued that someone else could have committed the rape.

District Judge Philip Pro threw out the lawsuit for jurisdictional reasons and it ended up in Clark County District Court.

Herndon said Hardcastle's ruling went even further than Lee's defense attorneys wanted it to.

Instead of comparing just four or five pieces of evidence to Lee's DNA, Herndon said, Hardcastle approved his own request to compare it to about 20 pieces of evidence.

Herndon said that although he believes post-conviction DNA testing should only be done on weak cases, he had requested all of the evidence collected be tested should Hardcastle grant the defense motion.

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