AUSTIN (WBAP/KLIF News) – Lawmakers will meet with rape victims in Austin Monday to discuss a bill that would require DNA collection from anyone arrested for a felony.
The information would be stored in a database.
29 states and the federal government already have similar laws in place. It’s widely known as “Katie’s Law”, which was enacted in 2006, and gives state’s additional funding to perform DNA collection during felony arrests.
22-year-old Katie Sepich was raped and murdered outside of her Las Cruces, New Mexico home in 2003. Her attacker’s skin and blood were found under her fingernails and lead to the conviction of Grabiel Adrian Avila for the gruesome crime.
Katie’s mother, Jayann Sepich, has said without that DNA her daughter’s case would have probably gone cold.
Texas lawmakers will be considering House Bill 1399 which was authored by Republican Representatives Reggie Smith and Representative Dade Phelan.
It’s known as the Krystal Jean Baker Act. It’s named after a 13-year-old Texas City girl who was brutally murdered and whose body was found dumped under a Chambers County bridge in the Trinity River in 1996.
Her killer, Kevin Edison Smith, was identified after a sheriff’s department employee resubmitted evidence from Baker’s case for analysis. That evidence led to Smith, who had submitted DNA during a minor drug arrest in Louisiana in 2010.
He was later convicted for Baker’s murder.
A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for April 3rd at 8 a.m.
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