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DNA expert: Mablin's blood found in victim's apartment, van

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By Steven Martens | Wednesday, May 21, 2008 |

CLINTON, Iowa — A DNA expert testified this morning that Benaiah Mablin’s blood was found inside the apartment and the mini-van of a Clinton woman who was stabbed to death in December.

Mablin, 26, is on trial for first-degree murder in the Dec. 13 stabbing death of Sandra Chambers-Singh, 41, whose body was found by a neighbor in her bedroom.

Michael Halverson, a criminalist and DNA specialist for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, told jurors that blood samples taken from Chambers-Singh’s apartment, the hallway outside the apartment, the parking lot and Chambers-Singh’s white mini-van were matched to Mablin, with the odds of the many samples belonging to someone else about 1 in 100 billion.

Mablin’s aunt, Sharon Holmes, who now lives in West Memphis, Ark., also testified that Mablin had come to her house on Camanche Avenue wearing bloody clothes and wanting to put them in her washing machine. She later took Mablin to the hospital to be treated for a cut on his hand, and police later recovered the clothing from the washing machine. Police also found drops of blood on the laundry room floor.