By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
The state has identified three Rowan County cases from those called into question over issues with the State Bureau of Investigation lab’s blood work.
Attorney General Roy Cooper called for the review, saying that crime lab analysts “omitted, overstated or falsely reported blood evidence.”
Across the state, 164 cases were flagged by an independent review process, and another 74 cases were identified by an SBI internal review. District attorneys in several counties already have reviewed cases or currently are looking at them.
The Rowan cases are: Gary Alvin Starnes, who was charged with second-degree murder in 1993; Donald Gene Shores, who was charged with attempted first-degree rape and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury in 1994, and Paul Eugene Henry, who was convicted of breaking and entering and habitual felon in 1997.
Rowan District Attorney Brandy Cook said the SBI has not sent her any information for a review to begin. She also does not have a timeline to complete a review.
When the cases happened should not have any bearing on how the cases will be handled, “as long as the information exists to be reviewed,” Cook said.
Requests for comments from the SBI were directed to a statement released by SBI Director Greg McLeod in March.
The SBI’s internal review of blood analysis reporting practices in the crime lab revealed the 74 cases from the 1990s. Reporting language was similar to those flagged by an outside review of cases from 1987-2003.
The outside review indicated cases involving nearly 270 people were flagged for “issues” with blood work.
Starnes, now 50, is serving a life sentence for the shooting death of Richard Allen “Ricky” Burridge in November 1993.
Burridge was found in a ditch in eastern Rowan County, shot twice in the abdomen.
There was no trial since Starnes pleaded guilty, but investigators told the court at the time the victim was robbed and his truck was stolen and later abandoned in Kannapolis.
Prior to the murder conviction, Starnes was convicted of multiple driving while impaired infractions and larceny charges, all misdemeanors.
Starnes’ record dates to when he was 16 and charged with felony breaking and entering via a plea agreement as a youthful offender.
Shores, now 41, was paroled in October 2009, serving 14 years of a maximum 20-year sentence for the assault and a maximum 15-year sentence for the attempted rape.
Before his 1995 attempted rape conviction, Shores was convicted of burning personal property in 1990, according to records.
No court records detailing the specifics and accounts of the attempted rape and assault conviction could be located.
In 1997, Henry pleaded guilty to breaking into several Rowan County churches along with another man and a juvenile. He served 10 years in prison for the church break-ins. He also served time for other charges in both Rowan, Cabarrus and Iredell counties that occurred before his 1997 arrest.
Henry’s conviction record, according to the N.C. Department of Correction, dates to 1987, when Henry was 18.
In 2008, a few months after being released from prison, Henry was charged with misdemeanor simple assault. He received probation. In June 2009, Henry was charged with second-degree kidnapping, robbery with a dangerous weapon, burglary and a sex offense. Those charges against the now 41-year-old are pending.
Contact reporter Shavonne Potts at 704-797-4253.