Story Created:
Mar 30, 2010 at 6:44 PM CDT
Story Updated:
Mar 30, 2010 at 6:44 PM CDT
It's a case of canine versus chemistry.
New evidence could make it harder for prosecutors to prove their case against David Williams.
He's the man charged in the fire that killed his fiance's three children.
A fire dog sniffed accelerant on Williams, lab tests say otherwise.
The defense says this changes everything; the prosecution says it changes nothing.
The dog used in the fire investigation belongs to the state fire marshal.
Springfield's fire department has a similarly trained dog.
This one detects explosives, and her handler says she's never wrong.
"This is a nitro-glycerin based explosive."
Cindy doesn't know that.
All the Belgium Malinois knows is that if she smells it behind the wheel of the truck where her handler placed it, she gets a toy.
"The explosives dog is trained for 17 different odors."
And Cindy's handler, Springfield Fire Marshal Bill Spence says she's 100% accurate.
He says all trained canines are.
"You have to do a certification test every year. The certification is 100% pass or fail, no if, ands, or buts about it," Spence tells us.
In the five years Cindy has been with the SFD she's never failed.
She showed us why Tuesday.
"Some dogs have a passive alert, which means they'll either sit down or lay down to indicate that they've found their odor that they recognize."
Spence says a dog's nose, 40 to 400 times more powerful than the human's nose, is also more powerful than a lab test, especially inside a charred structure.
"There will still be residual odors, but often times they're so minute even labs won't pick them up," Spence explains.
Greene County prosecuting attorneys agree.
"There are cases supporting the admissability of a dog's detection in the absence of a lab test," says prosecutor Dan Patterson.
He says it doesn't change his case against Williams, accused of using an accelerant to start the house fire that killed his fiance's three young children.
"Their alerts need to be backed up by lab analysis."
Williams' defense attorney Andy Hosmer says even at National Fire Protection Association manual says as much.
"It's a bombshell," he tells us.
One that splits the evidence, with man's best friend against man and machine for him.
Spence says accelerent dogs are trained to recognize seven scents.
In the case of sniffing suspicious clothes the articles are put in a line-up with other clothes to act as placebos.
Williams is still in the Greene County jail on $250,000 bond.
His next court appearance is May 5th.
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