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Winchester man accused of murdering his family must give DNA sample

Print | Comments () Posted by John Ellement April 21, 2011 04:00 PM

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By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

WOBURN -- A Middlesex Superior Court judge today ordered a Winchester man accused of murdering his family to provide prosecutors with a DNA sample so they can determine whether he left his genetic fingerprints at the bloody scene of the crime.

Thomas J. Mortimer IV allegedly cut the throat of his 4-year-old son, Thomas Mortimer V, and his 2-year-old daughter, Charlotte, inside the family's Windsong Lane home last June, according to Middlesex Superior Court records.

Middlesex prosecutors allege that Mortimer also fatally stabbed his wife, Laura Stone-Mortimer, 41, and her mother, Ragna Ellen Stone, 64, inside the same home.

Mortimer has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder and did not appear in court today.

Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Adrienne C. Lynch told Superior Court Judge John Lu the DNA testing was needed so experts can tell whether Mortimer was the source of physical evidence recovered at the crime scene.

Lynch also said prosecutors want to use the test to see if they can establish a link between Mortimer and items recovered from a state park in Western Massachusetts. Mortimer was arrested in the small rural town of Bernardston on June 17 by the town police chief, who had spotted him driving his sport utility vehicle.

Lu agreed with the prosecution and ordered Mortimer to provide the DNA sample.

Defense attorney Denise Regan argued, however, that prosecutors should first establish genetic profiles of the victims and then return to court.

She also said the DNA profile would be useless as evidence because the samples were collected in a house where he lived and in vehicles he regularly drove.

Mortimer allegedly left behind two typewritten notes confessing to the brutal killings.