Dead of Night (13 page)

The proposed law was introduced during the legislative session following Biela’s arrest by the house’s minority leader Heidi Gansert, R-Reno, a supporter of the foundation. However, it was not passed because of the estimated high cost of putting it into effect, a cost of likely more than $6 million dollars. Even though felons were assessed a $150 DNA testing fee, the authorities reported that only around 10 percent paid the fee.

Overtime paid to members of the Reno Police Department during the Brianna Denison investigation amounted to over $365,000, and the BBJF reported that the passage of Brianna’s Law would bring about an extreme reduction of the time and money spent on such lengthy criminal investigations. It would also serve as a quick means of exonerating those suspects who were not guilty and removing them from further suspicion, stopping repeat offenders, and preventing many violent crimes when the perpetrators knew they would be speedily identified because their DNA was already on file.

Those who were opposed to the law claimed that not only would it be too expensive to put into effect, it might also be in violation of the civil rights of some of those tested, because an arrest was not a guarantee of a subsequent conviction. They also feared that the information obtained by DNA testing might be used to discriminate against some minorities or to gain access to other personal medical information about the persons who were tested. There were other concerns about funding also. In New Mexico, where Katie’s Law had been passed the previous year, legislators had become concerned that their own lack of funding was resulting in slow storage of samples in databases, with criminals remaining free while backlogs grew. Nevada’s attorney general admitted that funding would be the biggest challenge there.

“I am hoping we can work through the civil issues,” said Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

The members of the BBJF were determined to find funding sources for the law. Valerie Van Antwerp, vice president of the foundation, said, “The foundation’s guiding principle is to do everything possible to ensure that no other family or individual is forced to go through what Brianna and her family had to endure.”

The foundation’s veep went on to say that working for the passage of the legislation was likely the most important step the foundation members could take toward achieving that goal, adding that taking DNA samples could save an untold number of lives.

Reno PD sergeant Chuck Lovitt said that DNA testing would enable detectives to save a great deal of time and effort by allowing them to home in on a suspect quickly without spending so much of their time pursuing false leads. He pointed out, however, that suspects still had to be investigated, and arrests were not made solely because of a DNA match.

Lovitt explained the theory of DNA testing for persons arrested for what he called “gateway crimes,” such as burglary, that often lead to violent crimes. If those offenders were required to give DNA samples, he said, escalating crimes could be prevented.

“We have an opportunity to significantly impact violent crime,” he said, adding that the testing wouldn’t work unless the system could handle the drastic increase in lab work.

“Otherwise,” he said, “the system will grind to a halt because it’s so overwhelmed.”

The American Civil Liberties Union’s Northern Nevada Chapter named potential problems with the law, saying that both it and the process by which the testing would occur were both at risk of being unconstitutional. The ACLU chapter’s coordinator, Lee Rowland, said that the law would treat those arrested as though they were already convicted, then require them to pay for the testing only because they had been arrested.

“Here in America, you’re innocent until proven guilty,” Lee Rowland said.

A Reno assemblywoman said that legislators would have to be assured that public safety concerns would outweigh citizens’ right to privacy. Sheila Leslie, a Reno Democrat, called the debate about DNA laws “a balancing act,” saying that the government had no right to take a person’s DNA just because a law enforcement officer had placed him under arrest.

“How would you feel if you were wrongfully arrested and your DNA was taken?” she asked.

Scientists in DNA testing labs said that the only information they could determine from a DNA sample was the person’s gender, and there were no names connected with the samples, only a code number. Foundation members said that they recommended destroying samples if a person was acquitted of the crime they had been charged with. Supporters of the passage of the law believed that the testing of persons who were later acquitted was a “no harm, no foul” situation. If the innocent were protected in such a matter, the guilty would not go unpunished.

Secret Witness founder Don Richter was an outspoken supporter of Brianna’s Law, and said that any legislator who failed to get behind the effort to pass the law would “personally wear the name of all future rape and murder victims. The true cost of not having this is the loss of human lives, raped women, and traumatized victims and families.”

At the root of all the discussion of the potential law, both pro and con, lay one fact that could not be denied. If James Biela had been required to submit a DNA sample after his problems with his former girlfriend, which resulted in his 2002 arrest on assault charges, he would have been identified as a rapist before he ever had the opportunity to become a murderer.

Chapter 15

Before November 2008 was over, Reno police investigators again called for possible rape and/or kidnapping victims of Biela’s, if any existed who had not yet been identified, to come forward with their information. Police felt that there might be additional victims who were holding back because they feared to report that they had been assaulted, like the young woman who was raped at gunpoint in the parking garage of the UNR campus on October 22, 2007, or the December 16, 2007, victim who had been rendered unconscious by a choke hold. Investigators pointed out that choke holds of that type were part of the jiu-jitsu training that Biela had been learning. If, by any chance, there were any other victims out there who had been attacked by him, the authorities wanted their information in order to supplement the case they had built against their suspect. They emphasized that Biela’s attacks were all random, opportunistic assaults. It was for that reason, including the fact that Biela’s most recent girlfriend, Carleen Harmon, had found small-sized women’s thong panties inside his truck, that they suspected that additional victims of Biela’s might be out there and had not yet come forward and reported to the authorities that they had been attacked. According to police, the panties found by Harmon in Biela’s truck were a major break that was instrumental in helping detectives crack the case. Like the DNA evidence that came later, the panties were one of the common denominators linking Biela to the crimes. It was also for that reason that investigators still were urging the owner of the Pink Panther thong panties to come forward.

 

 

According to Lieutenant Robert McDonald, police in Washington and Idaho were also looking for any connections to Biela. They were carefully examining unsolved sex crimes in their states during the time frame in which Biela might have been in their locales. When Biela fled Reno in March 2008 and relocated to Moses Lake, Washington, he had likely done so when he felt that things were about to get too hot for him in Reno.

“It seems like he was waiting for things to calm down,” McDonald said. “It had been six months and he had no contact with police. He still had his girlfriend and son. He came back.”

According to McDonald, investigators in Reno were particularly interested in any rape or sexual assault victims in Reno or the immediate area who had been attacked in the latter part of 2007 through March 2008. It was of great importance to the case against Biela for any such victims to come forward with their information. McDonald pointed out that the October 2007 rape victim had not reported the assault against her for a time, and he reassured potential victims that it was okay if such an assault had not previously been reported. He stressed the point that had it not been for the October 2007 victim’s information, police might not have obtained sufficient details to put together the composite sketch of the suspect—the sketch that bore such a striking resemblance to Biela.

“We would really love for any more victims to come forward,” McDonald added. “We will do our best to keep the information confidential, but we need to know if there are more victims out there.”

So far, according to McDonald, Biela had not been linked to any additional crimes in other parts of the nation through his DNA. He also reiterated how Biela had held the community hostage for nearly a year, and that residents could now “sleep easier” because of his arrest.

“But I can’t stress enough that this doesn’t mean you have to stop paying attention to what’s around you, and protect yourself,” he said. “[Biela] isn’t the only bad guy out there. We’d be naïve to think he’s the only predator in Reno.”

According to Washoe County DDA Elliott Sattler, who was preparing to prosecute the case against Biela with his boss, DA Richard Gammick, the district attorney’s office was looking to file additional charges against Biela. Authorities strongly suspected that Biela was involved in two additional sexual assaults on college students, and potentially even others, he said. That was why the investigators needed such victims to come forward.

“We anticipate filing an amended complaint in the near future,” Sattler told reporters without being more specific.

What else were police doing to build their case against Biela at this point in the investigation? According to McDonald, detectives suspected that he had followed the Brianna Denison case closely, and computer forensic experts were preparing to examine computers seized from Biela’s home to find out.

 

 

Following his arrest, detectives learned that Biela had traded in his Toyota Tacoma pickup to a dealership in Kellogg, Idaho, in June 2008, and investigators had seized it. Forensic experts from the Washoe County Crime Laboratory had been painstakingly processing it for clues after it had been tracked down through Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) records. Biela had traded the Toyota pickup for a Chevrolet truck, which also had a gray interior, the same color as the fibers obtained from the December 2007 victim’s clothing. Unfortunately, the dealership in Idaho had already detailed the Toyota pickup before it changed hands to a new owner, but investigators were hopeful that some forensic evidence remained despite the thorough cleaning it had been given. The truck no longer looked like it had when Biela owned it; the new owner had modified it by placing a cover on its bed and had equipped it with running boards, but DMV documents and the vehicle identification number (VIN) proved that it was the same vehicle.

Meanwhile, it appeared that defense attorney David Houston would not be defending Biela at trial. Instead, it now looked like public defender Jeremy Bosler’s office had the job, and that Richard Davies would lead the defense team. Biela had asked the court for new attorneys, claiming his relationship with his previous attorneys had been damaged. Davies was attempting to prepare for Biela’s scheduled December 10, 2008, preliminary hearing in Reno Justice Court, but Bosler indicated that his office might need to request additional time.

“We are still receiving police reports and witness statements and will evaluate our ability to go forward after that process is complete,” Bosler said.

On Friday, December 5, 2008, as they had indicated that they might, prosecutors filed three additional charges against Biela, including allegations that he sexually assaulted a young woman at gunpoint in October 2007 in the Brian J. Whalen Parking Complex on the UNR campus. This was an assault in which DNA had not been collected and which had resulted in part in the delay of investigators connecting the case with the others. He was also charged with battery with intent to commit sexual assault for an attack on a young woman on College Drive in November 2007. Prosecutors also alleged that he sexually assaulted Brianna Denison on or about January 20, 2008. Although DA Gammick issued a statement, he declined comment about the new charges.

“I’m not going to get into any specifics or discussions on the case at this time,” Gammick said. He indicated that he might have more to say later, after the preliminary hearing that was only a few days away—still scheduled for Wednesday, December 10, 2008. Gammick did say that his office was still in the process of reviewing the specifics of the case to decide whether or not to seek the death penalty against James Biela.

Due to what they referred to as the “sensitivity of the case,” the Denison family said that they would not comment on the new charges and they would likely not do any additional interviews until after the trial.

 

 

At one point, Officer Joe Robinson was brought into the case to inspect some of the evidence. Robinson had considerable training in the painstaking skill of tracing and examining cell phone records. By utilizing Robinson’s well-established skills, investigators wanted to try and pinpoint as closely as possible Biela’s locations at the time of Brianna’s disappearance, as well as where he was during the times of the other crimes he was suspected of committing.

Robinson discovered that someone, likely Biela, had used Biela’s cell phone to check his voice mail on the night Brianna disappeared. Cellular telephone transmission, simply put, goes out from the phone to a cell phone tower strategically placed in various locales; the calls placed are typically picked up by the tower nearest the phone being used. In this case, Robinson discovered that the cell phone tower related to Biela’s telephone’s transmission that night was located approximately 1.5 miles from the house from which Brianna was abducted.

Robinson also discovered that Biela’s cell phone was also used near the home from where the December 2007 victim was abducted and sexually assaulted.

Meanwhile, Reno detective Roya Mason had conducted a forensic search of Biela’s computers, which the police had seized. She had found thousands of search-term hits for the word “thong,” along with hundreds of photographs featuring women wearing thongs. She later said that the forensic search findings indicated that Biela’s “interest in . . . thongs and women in thongs” was thematic.

During this time, another investigator, Detective Troy Callahan, found two pairs of size-small women’s thong underwear hidden inside a storage compartment during a search of a travel trailer owned by Biela. By this point in the investigation, Biela’s interest in women’s thongs had become a well-established fact.