Cold case cracked: Man charged with 2008 San Francisco murder of groom-to-be
Derreyl Chase Goode has been charged with the 2008 murder of Jason Mosley, shot dead in San Francisco the day before his wedding. DNA advances cracked the cold case.
San Francisco cold case murder charge filed 17 years on, thanks to DNA advances
Google News MT — Crime (en) reports that Derreyl Chase Goode has been charged with the murder of Jason Mosley, a San Francisco man fatally shot in the parking lot of his mother's apartment complex in 2008 — the day before he was due to be married.
San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the charge on Thursday, describing the development as significant for a family that had waited nearly two decades for any prospect of justice.
"This is huge. You talk about a family that has been waiting almost two decades to feel a chance at justice. And now we can finally move forward with this case," Jenkins said.
Mosley's mother, Selina Arceneaux, had maintained at the time of his death that her son was not involved in gang activity and worked for a nonprofit organisation in the city. She recalled him distributing sweets to local children roughly an hour before he was killed. Arceneaux died in 2014 without seeing the case resolved. Mosley's fiancée was pregnant when he was shot; their son, now 18, never met his father.
Jenkins credited improvements in forensic DNA technology with unlocking the case. Investigators had recovered a firearm near the scene in 2008, but DNA testing at the time was not advanced enough to produce actionable results.
"Advancements in technology allowed for DNA testing to be done on the firearm that was recovered near the scene. More recently, that is what really cracked this case open and allowed for this arrest," Jenkins said.
She confirmed that within the past two years investigators were able to reprocess the existing DNA sample using newer methods, generating preliminary results that enabled further testing and ultimately the arrest.
"At the time that this happened in 2008, while there was DNA testing, it just wasn't as advanced as it is now," Jenkins said. "More recently, in the last couple of years, they were able to reprocess this DNA through advanced technology and give us some preliminary results."
According to ABC7's data team, San Francisco currently has approximately 300 cold cases on record dating back to 1970. Jenkins indicated that the Mosley case would not be the last to benefit from forensic advances.
"I want to give families hope who are still waiting for justice — that advancements in technology, most specifically with DNA, are giving us the chance at being able to file charges, even almost two decades after the fact," she said.
Goode faces up to 50 years to life in prison if convicted. He is scheduled to appear in court on 28 September for arraignment. ABC7 contacted his attorney for comment and had not received a response at the time of publication.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)