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Sodus house burglary from 2005 comes back to haunt two men; Co-mingled DNA on a discarded Mountain Dew bottle left at the scene ties the two to the crime

It was back in 2005 when a series of burglaries were solved with the arrests of Jon Cammarono, age 22, of Lake Road in Sodus and Sean M. Harris, age 19, of Owego (formerly of Sodus).

The two men were sentenced for their crimes and spent time behind bars. They did, however, deny burglarizing another residence. Beginning twelve years ago New York State required those convicted of certain crimes to submit to DNA testing, with the information on a person's DNA profile stored on massive data bases. The process began slowly and expanded in 1999 and again in 2004.

DNA is a powerful crime-prevention tool. Unfortunately, the law provides for DNA collection only in about half of current convictions. While DNA, a person's genetic code is collected from persons convicted of any felony in the penal law, in the case of misdemeanor convictions it is collected only for 35 specified crimes, and not for the hundreds of other misdemeanors.

As of January 4, 2008, the state's DNA data bank found 4,042 “hits” in which forensic DNA evidence from crime scenes was matched with offender profiles. For the last eight years, these hits have occurred at an average rate of greater than one per day.

For example, in March 2005, Raymon McGill was convicted of robbery and submitted DNA which matched DNA from two murders and a rape committed in 2000 and 2004.

In 1999, McGill had been convicted of lesser crimes which did not require him to submit DNA samples; had he been required to do so then, McGill would have been identified in the first 2000 crime and the murders would have been prevented.

It is also important to note that the same tools have been used to exonerate the wrongfully convicted. In one well-known case, for example, Jeff Deskovic spent over 15 years in prison for murder and rape, until DNA evidence uncovered the real perpetrator, who then confessed.

Unfortunately for Cammarono and Harris, the State's backlog of nearly 49,000 samples that existed in January 2007 is now almost cleared.

At the beginning of 2007, the State Police had the capacity to analyze about 2,500 DNA samples per month. Now, through enhanced technology and outsourcing, that agency can process over 10,000 samples monthly.

With the State's DNA crime registry, Cammarono and Harris are now haunted with their once denied crime from the past. According to State Police Investigator Robert Klinkman, a Mountain Dew soda bottle found at the scene had co-mingled DNA from Cammarono and Harris on it.

So, what took so long for the DNA match? Television watchers of such popular shows as CSI (Crime Scene Investigator) see lab technicians process and report DNA findings on a whim. “Unlike what people see on the television show CSI, it doesn't take 5 minutes to do a DNA match. People's perception is that a DNA match comes back right away,” said State Police Investigator Robert Klinkman.

Cammarono and Harris were arrested for Burglary in the 2nd Degree for the Village of Sodus Burglary . Harris was arraigned and remanded to jail on $2500 cash/$5000 bond. Cammarono was arraigned and released on his own recognizance, but arrested on a Wayne County warrant for Trespass.

Cammarono was arrested on December 10, 2007 at 12:21 a.m. hiding in the bushes of a residence on Maple Avenue in Sodus. He then tried to force his way into the residence. Following his arrest, he failed to show up for Court and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arraigned on the warrant, arraigned and committed to jail on $200 cash and has been since bailed out.

According to Wayne County Chief Deputy Rick House, several states require anyone arrested to submit to DNA testing as part of the booking process, just as with a mug shot and fingerprints. He stated that the majority of the more liberal New York State legislature feels that DNA submissions are an invasion of privacy and should only be done upon conviction, not arrest. House said that in many felony and misdemeanor cases where DNA samples are allowed, a person arrested may have their case pled down to a category of crime that does not require the DNA submission. House said he hopes the State legislature will finally come to the realization that DNA samples should be taken on all crimes involving the normal booking process. He added that just as with fingerprints and mug shots, if a person is found innocent, there are methods in place to ex-sponge records if necessary. Currently, about 46% of persons convicted of a penal law offense in New York State will be required to submit to a DNA sample.