Cold case relying on new DNA tool ends in guilty plea

Wisconsin
A trial that would have determined the outcome of a 20-year-old Milwaukee County murder case ended abruptly Wednesday afternoon when the defendant pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless homicide.
Cary Lee Holmes now faces up to 20 years in prison for killing a Milwaukee man in 1992.
Norm Gahn, one of two prosecutors on the trial and a pioneer in charging cold cases based on DNA evidence, said Wednesday the case would have been the first in Milwaukee County and likely the state to present results from a DNA analysis technology used specifically for degraded samples as evidence in court.