DNA evidence tied Kosoul Chanthakoummane to Sarah Walker’s murder at a model home in Collin County. In last-minute appeals, his attorneys argue the evidence was not conclusive.
But analysts also determined his DNA was on Walker’s fingernails and elsewhere at the crime scene, and that evidence largely has convinced the courts they have the right man. In his last appeals to Collin County and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals filed last week, Chanthakoummane’s attorneys argued that the DNA evidence is also questionable.
In a court filing, the Collin County district attorney’s office replied that “Chanthakoummane presents no new science in the field of DNA analysis, and even if there were something new, he fails to show it would have prevented his conviction.” DNA from blood samples and another real estate agent’s report shifted the investigation’s focus to Chanthakoummane. The other agent, who was selling a home near Walker’s model home, and her husband told police they saw an Asian man in a white Ford Mustang park across the street from the model home around the time of the murder.
Police and prosecutors rejected the statement, but Chanthakoummane’s lawyers say new scientific research shows his DNA could have been transferred to Walker’s fingernails without any direct contact between them — for instance, if she touched an object he had left a blood mark on. The National Institute of Standards and TechnologyChanthakoummane’s lawyers notedbecause his DNA was found on the fingernails of a homicide victim.
Chanthakoummane’s last appeal also attempts to discredit witness testimony stating his car was outside the model home around the time of Walker’s murder. His lawyers stated that a former deputy chief of the Richardson Police Department told homicide investigators he spoke to Walker in the model home for several minutes around the time she is believed to have been killed. The deputy chief mentioned another car with a woman driving on the street, but not a white Mustang.
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