Prosecutors have revealed that DNA evidence has connected two teenagers to the fatal shooting of a University of Massachusetts student, who was interning for a congressman in Washington, DC, last summer.
During a status hearing, government attorneys informed DC Superior Court Judge Danya Dayson that DNA found on shell casings at the crime scene provided an “overwhelming statistical match” to Jailen Lucas. Furthermore, genetic evidence also implicates Kelvin Thomas in the incident.
The teenagers, both 17 years old at the time of the crime, face adult charges of first-degree murder while armed for the death of Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, a 21-year-old from Granby, Massachusetts.
Prosecutors noted that two rounds of DNA testing have been completed, and the trial will feature expert testimony on DNA analysis, ballistics, and fingerprint evidence.
Tarpinian-Jachym, who was preparing to enter his senior year at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was killed on June 30 near the intersection of 7th and M Street NW in Washington.
He had been in the capital for the summer, working as an intern for Representative Ron Estes, a Republican from Kansas.
Two rounds of DNA testing have been completed, prosecutors said, and additional expert testimony is expected at trial on DNA analysis, ballistics and fingerprint evidence.
Tarpinian-Jachym, a rising senior at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, was shot June 30, near the intersection of 7th and M Street NW in Washington.
He was spending the summer in Washington as a congressional intern for Rep. Ron Estes, a Republican from Kansas.
Lucas and Thomas were arrested Sept. 5. On Oct. 31, a third suspect, identified as 18-year-old Naqwan Antonio Lucas of the District of Columbia, was arrested in Montgomery Village and also charged in Tarpinian-Jachym’s murder.
A pretrial hearing is scheduled for May 15. The trial is expected to begin in February. Tarpinian-Jachym’s mother declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital.
