Up next...
A local police
officer gets a surprise
emergency call.
DNA leads straight
to potential suspects.
It was right after we
got the DNA hit
It was right after we
got the DNA hit
that it kinda all started
coming together.
But could DNA,
the so-called gold
standard of modern
forensics, be mistaken?
I think we need to acknowledge
that there are limitations
to our technology.
For a while
it seems the impossible
is possible.
But in the end,
the science is clear.
No one can be in two
places at the same time.
It really was a shock
to the system of everybody.
Monte Sereno, California,
is both home base
and a getaway destination
for many high-income
tech executives
from nearby Silicon Valley.
It's an elite community.
It's an elite community.
Very wealthy homes, uh,
gated community where,
you know, you don't enter
into a driveway
unless you have, you know,
permitted access.
It's a pretty tight-knit group.
Neighbors know neighbors.
The town's name
translates as
"serene mountain."
But on a November night in 2012,
it was anything but serene.
Around 1:30 a.m.,
a terrified woman called 911.
Within minutes
police and paramedics arrived
at a 7,000-square-foot
home in the shadow
of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Stay here!
Stay here, don't move!
Two victims were inside.
66-year-old Raveesh Kumra,
also known as Ravi,
66-year-old Raveesh Kumra,
also known as Ravi,
was dead at the scene.
He was tied up,
had tape around his
eyes and his mouth,
and his hands tied
behind his back.
There was no blood.
There's no, you know,
b*llet wounds or s*ab wounds.
I was thinking robbery gone bad.
Rani Kumra,
Ravi's ex-wife with whom
he still lived,
was found terrified
and blindfolded.
Miss, it's okay.
It's us.
We're the Los Gatos police.
She told police
that earlier that night,
she'd gone
to an upstairs bedroom
she'd gone
to an upstairs bedroom
and had left Ravi watching
TV in the living room.
Later that night,
a man burst into her bedroom.
That person forcibly escorted
her out of the bedroom
and into the kitchen,
family room area,
where she briefly saw Ravi
was struggling with a couple
of other intruders.
She was pleading for them
to leave him alone
because he had
health conditions.
Rani said
the attackers stole
the jewelry she had on,
and appeared to be searching
the house for other valuables.
And appeared to be searching
the house for other valuables.
Ravi Kumra's autopsy lent
weight to the theory
that the attackers
didn't intend to k*ll him.
The coroner
concluded that he had
suffocated to death.
The duct tape had been wrapped
all the way around
his face multiple times.
And so, the duct tape
just prevented him
from being able to
breathe enough to stay alive.
Almost everyone
on the case was familiar
with the victim.
Ravi Kumra was a classic
immigrant success story.
Ravi Kumra was a classic
immigrant success story.
Raveesh Kumra
emigrated from India
in 1970.
And he started working
in Silicon Valley and helped
found some cellular companies.
And then he became
an angel investor,
um, funding new companies
in Silicon Valley.
He also had
an odd habit that might have
ultimately led to his death.
He never locked the doors.
He was very, very
bad about keeping
the house locked.
He felt that it
was a gated estate,
they were in a safe community.
They were in a safe community.
He didn't feel the need
to keep the house locked.
Investigators
surmised that if
they could find out
who knew Ravi Kumra
kept his house unlocked,
they'd have a straight line
to who k*lled him.
Investigators
on the Ravi Kumra m*rder case
ultimately determined that
some $30,000 in cash
and jewelry
had been stolen from his home.
Since Ravi apparently
thought no one would
ever target his house in
upscale Monte Sereno,
he never invested
in surveillance cameras.
My husband is dead.
The only witness
to the crime was Rani Kumra,
and before she was blindfolded,
she got a pretty good look
at one of the attackers.
He was holding
a cell phone that was lit up,
He was holding
a cell phone that was lit up,
like the screen was lit up.
And so that had lit
his face up a bit,
and she could see him
enough to describe him.
Rani helped
the forensic artist create
this sketch
which was soon
released to local media.
Another possible break came
from the materials
this home invasion
team left in the house.
They had apparently had an idea
as to how to destroy
evidence but it wasn't
terribly effective,
as it turned out.
So, there was
a significant number
of gloves in the sink.
So, there was
a significant number
of gloves in the sink.
The sink had been filled
up with water and soap
had been added.
So, they were sitting
in sudsy water in the sink.
In addition
to the gloves was
the distinctive-looking
duct tape that had been
used to bind the victims.
As this evidence
was processed by the lab,
detectives got some
interesting information
about their victim.
Ravi Kumra's marital situation
was unusual.
Before their very recent
and very amicable divorce,
he'd been married to Rani
for more than 35 years.
He'd been married to Rani
for more than 35 years.
They had two adult children.
But Ravi had other
children with other women.
The more I dug
into the victim's background,
I quickly learned that...
there was a lot
of prostitutes in it.
There were several women
that he had met that he had
started families with,
purchased homes and cars,
and... and supplied
them with, uh, money.
He wanted
to impregnate these women.
He wanted to have children.
From what we gather
from talking to people
that knew him,
he was fairly impressed
with himself
and thought that his
genes should carry on.
And so, he would, uh,
he would make arrangements
with these women.
Of the women
Ravi consorted with,
there was one he
seemed particularly fond of.
One of them was a woman
named Katrina Fritz
One of them was a woman
named Katrina Fritz
who he had met in 1999.
At the time, she was 19.
And then continued
to have a relationship
with for the next 12 years.
Over that period,
he had given her hundred...
hundreds of thousands of dollars
worth of gifts, cars, um,
and, uh, helped sustain
her lifestyle for that period.
Police thought
Katrina would have known
the house would not be locked.
She likely knew
where the valuables
would be located.
She likely knew
where the valuables
would be located.
But she denied any
involvement in the crime.
Meanwhile, the attackers
had made a big mistake.
Soaking the gloves in soapy
water did not destroy the DNA.
It was also found
on the duct tape left
at the crime scene.
Within days, the state
DNA database identified
the alleged perpetrators
as DeAngelo Austin
and Javier Garcia.
They were members
of a g*ng, uh,
known as Ghost Town.
And then they were also
members of an offshoot
of Ghost Town
And then they were also
members of an offshoot
of Ghost Town
called the Money Team.
And the Money Team had
a primary function
of doing home invasions
on wealthy people.
Primarily wealthy Asian,
um, or Indian people.
Javier Garcia
bore a marked resemblance
to the composite sketch.
In addition, the DNA
database turned up a hit
turned up a hit to a
third alleged perpetrator.
That DNA under the fingernails
belong to Lukis Anderson.
And Lukis Anderson's
DNA was in the database
because years earlier
he had been convicted
of a... uh, a home
invasion robbery.
The case looked open and shut.
The suspects had been
convicted of crimes
like this in the past
and their DNA put them
at the scene of the m*rder.
Oh, that's the thing.
The DNA is not wrong.
The DNA is the DNA.
But soon detectives
and forensic analysts
got some information
that seemed to defy
the basic principles
of forensic science.
Lukis Anderson had
a... an airtight alibi.
The evidence
against the suspects
in the m*rder of Ravi
Kumra was stacking up fast.
DNA put three men at the scene
and cell phone evidence
further cemented the case
against two
of the alleged attackers,
DeAngelo Austin
and Javier Garcia.
The cell phone records showed
both their cell phones
in Monte Sereno
during the time frame
of the crime,
using their cell phone.
Either sending
or receiving text messages,
things like that.
A further background check
A further background check
revealed a stunning
bit of information.
It stemmed from
a recent traffic violation
by the suspect DeAngelo Austin.
The name on the car
that he had gotten
a camera ticket with,
a red light camera ticket.
It was registered
to his sister Katrina Fritz.
Katrina Fritz was
a sex worker that...
Raveesh Kumra had...
had a relationship with...
for 12 years.
Investigators felt
that Katrina would have known
Ravi Kumra
always kept his house open,
and allegedly told her brother.
All the suspects, Katrina
Fritz, DeAngelo Austin,
Javier Garcia
and Lukis Anderson,
were taken into custody
and faced charges
of capital m*rder.
The evidence made
sense, except for one thing.
The third man,
a homeless man with apparent
mental health issues
a homeless man with apparent
mental health issues
had no known link
to the other suspects.
All of us had the idea
that... Well,
if your DNA is there,
you must have been there.
And so I think, even Lukis,
who was very staunch
from the beginning
that, "I did not do this,
I wasn't there,"
even started
to question himself.
For Lukis Anderson,
his arrest
in the Ravi Kumra m*rder
was just the latest
in his series of calamities.
Lukis kind of had
the deck stacked against him
from birth.
He was raised, He was
raised, uh, by a single mom
who was unhoused.
He developed
a substance abuse issue
with alcohol
and he had some head injuries.
At one point, he was drunk,
and he stepped off a
curb and got hit by a truck.
And ever since then,
his memory wasn't so great.
But DNA
not only put Lukis
at the scene,
it was under
the victim's fingernails,
which meant
some very close contact.
Investigators confronted Lukis
with this evidence.
With this evidence.
Lukis, who was all too aware
of his memory issues,
actually began to doubt
his own story.
Actually began to doubt
his own story.
DNA evidence
carries so much weight
that he says, "Oh my God,
maybe... maybe
I did do it, you know?
I... I black out sometimes.
I get so drunk. I mean,
it doesn't seem like something
that I would do.
I don't remember it,
but my memory
is not very good."
If Lukis colluded
with the other suspects,
there had to be
a connection between them.
But try as they might,
detectives couldn't find one.
This was a pretty sophisticated
g*ng home invasion.
Lukis is not the kind of guy
Lukis is not the kind of guy
you wanna take with you
to go do some kind of
sophisticated crime.
His public defender, now
a superior court judge,
set about tracking
his whereabouts
on the day and night
of the Kumra m*rder.
Not exactly easy
when dealing with
a homeless alcoholic.
Luckily, Lukis
didn't normally stray
from a 12-block area
in San Jose,
about ten miles
from the m*rder site,
and he had friends there.
They looked after him.
They showed me
where he would sleep,
where he would panhandle.
They knew him
backwards and forwards.
They knew him
backwards and forwards.
They were
very close friends to him.
And what
these people showed
Lukis' legal team,
upended the case against him,
despite the DNA match.
My first reaction,
in my head, of course, was,
"Holy crap!
How did I miss that?"
Lukis Anderson
and three other suspects
in the m*rder of Ravi Kumra,
was staring down
possible life sentences,
or worse,
the death penalty.
But Lukis's public defender
soon discovered that he'd
interacted with police
at a local supermarket
on the night
of the Kumra m*rder.
Lukis is
pretty highly intoxicated
and he's panhandling.
Lukis enters the store
and passes out
or basically falls down
and the clerk doesn't think
and the clerk doesn't think
that he's able
to care for himself
and makes a call
for San Jose police
to respond.
Lukis
was five times
the legal limit.
He was so drunk,
he was taken straight
to a local hospital.
Records showed
he was admitted
at 10:45 p.m.
In what turned out to be
a crucial development,
Lukis wasn't released
until nine o'clock
the next morning.
Which cover the entire period
of when the homicide
could have occurred.
They held him overnight,
They held him overnight,
which was the night
of the homicide
and they were...
They had him
on ten-minute bed checks,
uh, the entire night.
But Lukis' DNA
under Ravi Kumra's
fingernails said otherwise.
It said Lukis wasn't
in the hospital.
It said he was
in very close contact
with the victim
on the night he was k*lled.
I felt pretty strongly
about DNA evidence
on the victim's fingernails
being solid.
In my mind,
it was still a possibility
that there is something wrong
that there is something wrong
with the hospital records,
that maybe...
maybe they had the wrong guy.
Maybe somebody thought
that was Lukis
and it wasn't Lukis.
But Lukis
was identified definitively
by numerous hospital workers
as the man in the hospital
the night of the m*rder.
Now, detectives went back
to the forensics lab.
The first thought
that everyone had
was that, "It had to be
lab contamination," right?
'Cause that's something
that happens.
A DNA from one case
somehow migrates to the...
to the evidence of another case.
To the evidence of another case.
Um, but they didn't find
any evidence of contamination.
Lukis Anderson appeared to be
in two places at the same time.
Police Corporal Erin Lunsford
was determined to figure out
how this happened.
I never wanna send anybody
that was innocent to jail.
And this is...
somebody that I might be
sending to jail for life.
Lunsford worried
he'd never get to the bottom
of this very strange case.
But then, he came upon
a routine set
But then, he came upon
a routine set
of hospital admission reports
submitted from the night
of the Kumra m*rder.
And I'm looking at the
names of the paramedics...
and one of them was...
It's not a common name.
And I looked at it and I go...
That looks really familiar.
And I thought,
"It can't be."
One probable answer
to the mystery
was shockingly simple.
The paramedics from both
the Kumra m*rder
and Lukis' hospitalization
were the same men.
And Lukis' hospitalization
were the same men.
A few hours
after they got Lukis
to the hospital,
they responded
to the Kumra m*rder.
Could this connection explain
how Lukis Anderson's DNA
was found under
Ravi Kumra's fingernails?
Cynthia Cale conducted the
first study
in the US
on the phenomenon
of secondary DNA transfer.
With direct transfer,
there's either you directly
touch the object
and your DNA is left behind
or you cough, sneeze,
you're speaking and you spit,
or you cough, sneeze,
you're speaking and you spit,
you know,
there's nothing in between
you and that surface.
With secondary transfer,
there's kind of a vector
that is in between, so it
can be another person
it can be an object.
With modern DNA technology,
miniscule amounts
of what's called "touch DNA"
can be lifted or transferred
from almost any surface.
The studies have shown that
that initial brief contact
is when that transfer's
gonna occur.
And it's not necessarily...
how long that contact is...
is going to increase transfer.
Is going to increase transfer.
It's... If it's gonna happen
it's gonna happen
on that initial touch.
And this analysis
provided a plausible reason
for how Lukis Anderson
appeared to be in two places
at the same time.
When Lukis was taken
to the hospital,
paramedics placed on his finger
what's known
as a pulse oximeter,
a simple plastic device
used to check a victim's
heart rate and blood
oxygen level.
Just a few hours later,
that same team of paramedics
that same team of paramedics
appears to have used
the same pulse oximeter
on Ravi Kumra,
possibly creating
the secondary transfer
that put Lukis Anderson's DNA
under Ravi's fingernails.
Those pulsometers,
they have a non-porous surface.
So, they're gonna, you know,
that DNA is just gonna
sit on there.
With this information,
Lukis Anderson, a man
who had been given few
breaks in his life,
was free.
All thanks to some dogged work
from his legal team
All thanks to some dogged work
from his legal team
and local police.
He was very well aware
that he really dodged a b*llet
with regards to everything
being done upfront
and so, he was always grateful
and appreciative,
he's always full of thank you's.
The law now turned
to the people still charged
in Ravi Kumra's m*rder.
Katrina Fritz,
Ravi's subsidized mistress
of a dozen years
admitted making it known
that Ravi kept
a lot of valuables
in his unlocked house
that Ravi kept
a lot of valuables
in his unlocked house
and even gave her brother
a map of the inside layout.
She struck a plea deal
and spent only four years
in prison.
Javier Garcia got 37 years
to life.
DeAngelo Austin was given
life without parole.
A third man, Marcellus Drummer,
was linked to the crime
through DNA later found
at the scene.
He also got life without parole.
Investigators say there's
a moral to this story,
a moral that saved
Lukis Anderson
a moral that saved
Lukis Anderson
and perhaps many others
from being unjustly convicted.
If it's only DNA,
then I would be wary
of using that
as your only evidence.
When we go into court
as a DNA analyst
and as an expert,
what we say,
the jury is gonna believe.
So, had he not had that alibi,
I think he would be in jail
right now
or, uh, sitting on death row.
The presumption
of innocence means something.
It needs to mean something.
And there's a reason
why we start there.
And that includes with science.
And that includes with science.
That science
doesn't change the burden,
it doesn't change how cases
need to be proved.
Evidence is just like
any other evidence.
It wasn't a screw-up,
it was us not understanding
the science,
and the limitations,
I should say, of the science.