| Crime |
On July 15, 2010, seventeen-year-old Norma Lopez disappeared after leaving Valley View High School. Her partially clad body was found five days later. |
| Evidence |
Lopez’s earrings and jeans were collected as evidence. |
| DNA |
The California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services Riverside Laboratory analyzed the evidence and generated the DNA data. |
| Match |
Using manual interpretation, the laboratory qualitatively included suspect Jesse Torres as a contributor to the earrings mixture. |
| TrueAllele |
TrueAllele quantitatively connected Norma Lopez’s earrings to Jesse Torres with a match statistic of 18.6 thousand. |
| Cybergenetics |
On February 14, 2019, Dr. Mark Perlin testified before a Riverside County jury about the TrueAllele DNA results. |
| Outcome |
On March 13, 2019, the jury convicted Jesse Torres of first-degree murder and recommended that Torres be sentenced to death. On December 4, 2020, Mr. Torres was sentenced to death. |
