Assembly bill would require DNA kits to be tested within 30 days

Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt is pushing to make sure DNA kits from sexual assault cases are tested in a timely manner from now on.

Laxalt secured about $6 million in grant and settlement funds by 2016 to tackle a backlog of roughly 8,000 untested DNA kits throughout the state — some dating back as far as 30 years.

Police agencies have since made a significant dent in the backlog, but Laxalt, along with a working group of law enforcement stakeholders, legislators and victims advocates, wants to avoid this problem in the future.

Assembly Bill 55, to be introduced in the legislative session that begins Monday, aims at doing just that. The proposed law requires a police agency to send most kits to be tested within 30 days, a forensic lab to complete the test within 180 days, and annual reports to the Legislature.

“We’ve worked hard to find the money to test all these kits,” Laxalt said. “I didn’t want 10 years from now for Nevada to be back here again.”

Under the proposed law, rural police will get some reimbursement for testing costs.

The Metropolitan Police Department has sent about 1,500 DNA kits to a forensics lab in Virginia for testing. Those tests have led to 43 hits on the FBI’s national Combined DNA Index System and eight arrests.

Cold case investigators in December used matches from those backlogged DNA kits to tie Brandon McGuire, 42, to a 2004 sexual assault case and a homicide in 1998. McGuire also has been the top suspect in the 1999 death of his wife, according to a police affidavit.

Two murder charges, a sexual assault charge, and a first-degree kidnapping charge were filed against McGuire in November. He is due in court for a preliminary hearing March 10.

Contact Wesley Juhl at wjuhl@reviewjournal.com and 702-383-0391. Follow @WesJuhl on Twitter.