Retrial begins in Rohnert Park, slaying after mistrial due to DNA error

A new trial began Friday in a 2016 Rohnert Park slaying that stalled earlier this year after officials discovered a crime lab analyzed wrongly DNA evidence.

Prosecutors say the defendant, Daniel Carrillo, fatally stabbed 18-year-old Kirk Kimberly and buried his body near Sonoma State University. The first trial ended in a mistrial in June, but prosecutors say the evidence — including DNA analysis — will support a conviction.

Opening statements were made in Sonoma County Superior Court to a jury of eight women and seven men, including alternates. Prosecutors allege Carrillo lured Kimberly to a secluded area near SSU on Oct. 17, 2016, under the pretense of selling her marijuana. Instead, they say, Carrillo stabbed Kimberly at least six timesburied his body and left the scene on Kimberly’s mountain bike, which was never recovered.

Assistant District Attorney Jane Murray said the investigation turned up key evidence, including a Snapchat message believed to have been sent by Carrillo to Kimberly, saying, “I came home. You’re not here yet’, and diary entries allegedly expressing ‘violence and aggression’ towards the victim.

Carrillo’s attorney, Gabriel Quinnan, argued that the evidence presented by prosecutors did not prove his client committed the murder. He said the witnesses did lied about statements implicating Carrillo and pointed to the alleged murder weapon, found a year later, which contained the DNA of skin cells from both Kimberly and Carrillo.

“Ultimately, you will find that this mountain of evidence has nothing to do with Daniel,” Quinnan told jurors.

Kimberly was last seen alive October 17, 2016. More than two weeks later, a caretaker discovered her body buried on SSU property off the Rohnert Park Expressway.

Retrial comes after years of legal delaysincluding challenges to whether Carrillo, who was 16 at the time of the murder, should be charged as an adult. A recently signed state law raised the standards for prosecuting juveniles as adults, but in 2022, a judge ruled that Carrillo’s case would remain in adult court.

The lawsuit dismissed in June followed the discovery of faulty DNA testing by the Serologic Research Institute, or SERI, a Richmond lab whose errors have affected hundreds of cases statewide. Despite the lab issue, Murray said DNA evidence will still support the prosecution’s case, and SERI officials are expected to testify.

Carrillo was arrested in February 2020 and has remained in custody since then. If convicted, he faces up to life in prison.

You can contact staff editor Colin Atagi at [email protected]. On Twitter @colin_atagi.