DNA sample leads to arrest in murder, sexual asault

Stephen Curran

Tuesday, March 22, 2005 | 11:24 a.m.

Metro Police say a 2-year-old DNA sample led to the weekend arrest of a man who authorities allege killed a woman in January 1997 and sexually assaulted a teenage girl in October 1999.

Jerry B. Johnson, 27, was arrested Saturday and is charged with murder with a weapon, sexual assault with a weapon and kidnapping, police announced this morning.

His arrest came 25 months after he provided a DNA sample as a condition of his release from prison in February 2003, police said. Johnson had been sent to prison in 2002 for battery that caused substantial bodily harm, police said.

The arrest was the first time a DNA sample required from an inmate was used to identify a suspect in a cold case since the department received more than $750,000 in Justice Department funds in September, Detective David Mesinar of Metro's homicide section said. The money was part of a grant to help Metro sort through the backlog of DNA samples from 197 active cases, Mesinar said.

The grant was part of President Bush's $95 million DNA initiative, which also awarded $247,000 for the Washoe County forensics lab.

In Johnson's case, the DNA analysis led to him being charged in the Jan. 19, 1997 fatal stabbing of Diane Vitt, 40, of Las Vegas, near Yale and Harmony streets.

He was also charged in the Oct. 14, 1999 sexually assault of a 16-year-old girl at a school bus stop near Orr Junior High School, police said.

Analysis conducted in 2001 later determined that the same man had committed both crimes, although police at that time were unable to establish the suspect's identity, they said.

Johnson was released from prison on the battery charge in February 2003. The DNA information was later used to identify Johnson.

Detectives in February used a search warrant to obtain a second sample of DNA from Johnson. That evidence again confirmed Johnson as the contributor, Mesinar said.

The link that later connected him to the crimes came from analysis performed in April 2003.

Mesinar said he did not know how long it typically takes the department's forensic laboratory to match DNA samples. Berch Henry, who manages the lab, was not immediately available for comment .