A jury found a 61-year-old man guilty in a cold case in which a murdered woman was found in a Denver motel room in 1994.
The jury deliberated for nine hours before finding Steven Cumberbatch, 61, guilty of murdering 36-year-old Rita DesJardine in early December 1994. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Denver 7+ Colorado News Latest Headlines | June 28, 8am In the room, Denver police found a broken hotel room table with a disconnected leg, men's and women's clothing, and a bloody palm print and fingerprint on bed sheets. Neither print was defined enough to make a comparison and the sheets were sent to the FBI in November 1995.
In March 2018, according to the affidavit, detectives took swabs from a gin bottle and another item that had been in the room and submitted the samples to the Combined DNA Index System, which came back a couple months later with a hit for Cumberbatch, who was living in Virginia at the time. In the summer of 2018, a pair of men’s shorts was submitted for testing, which came back in September 2019 with a partial match to Cumberbatch. The next month, a special agent with Virginia State Police authored a warrant to obtain buccal swabs and palm prints from Cumberbatch, who was incarcerated at the time.
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