A 55-year-old man serving life in prison for a brutal 2001 stabbing death has succeeded in a bid to have DNA evidence in his case retested.
Gustavo Mireles, who has maintained his innocence since his arrest and never confessed, was convicted on Aug. 14, 2002, of killing Mary Jane Rebollar.
Her body was found in a red and white Chevrolet pickup truck on June 23, 2001, on a dirt road by a sugarcane field near Alamo.
She had been stabbed 46 times.
The only physical evidence the jury used to convict Mireles included two blood patterns on the passenger side door of the truck, some blood on her pants and a pubic hair inside her purse.
Prosecutors say all of those samples included Mireles’ DNA.
Brian Ehrenberg, an attorney with the Texas Innocence Project, however, argued during a hearing approximately three weeks ago that the DNA evidence would actually show Mireles was not at the crime scene.
He pointed out that the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab in McAllen, which later moved to Weslaco didn’t use the FBI’s newest testing standard in 2001 and said a lot of the DNA evidence didn’t return DNA results because of how it was tested.
That crime lab was later shut down for an audit after DPS found faulty testing in sexual assault kits, which occurred around the same time the DNA in Mireles’ case was tested there.
The attorney also suggested that Mireles’ blood may have been cross-contaminated through a mishap or tampering, pointing to how the test tube containing Mireles’ sample was missing one-fourth of the blood it was supposed to contain and that the evidence bag containing the test tube was open.
There were also fingernail scrapings. At the time, the DNA under those scrapings only matched the profile of a woman, and the medical examiner testified during Mireles’ trial that Rebollar had extensive defensive wounds and that whoever killed her, their DNA would be in those fingernail scrapings.
Ehrenberg also alleges that the DNA would reveal Rebollar’s real killers, who he says is a man named Jesus Arce and/or a woman named Delia Rodriguez.
Rebollar was in a relationship with Arce and had recently befriended Rodriguez before her death.
The jury never heard that Rodriguez and Arce also had a relationship, which Rebollar did not know about.
While state District Judge Mario E. Ramirez had not signed the order granting the testing as of press time, Ehrenberg said that court staff had indicated to him that the judge would sign the order.
The court record also indicates that Ramirez intends to sign an order allowing the testing.
Ehrenberg was pleased with the development.
“I would just like to say that this is a major step in the right direction, but the fight is not over. Now, we will need to wait for the Department of Public Safety to complete their testing. Once that is done, we will start the real fight, which is getting Gus exonerated,” Ehrenberg said in a statement.
A proposed order filed in the record indicates that the retesting will be on multiple items, including hairs found on the victim and in her purse, blood stains on the passenger door of her truck and numerous blood stains on her pullover top.
The blood on Rebollar’s jeans will be retested as will blood stains found on her bra.
Her panties will also be retested as will three blood stains on a seat cover from Mireles’ truck.
Lastly, Rebollar’s sexual assault kit will be retested and so will the fingernail scrapings.
“The Court finds that this evidence was not previously subjected to DNA testing, more probative testing now exists, this evidence was tested at a lab that was temporarily shut (down) due to an internal audit, was secured in relation to the offense that is the basis of the challenged conviction, and was in the possession of the state during the trial of the offense,” the proposed order stated.
The proposed order further states that the court finds the evidence exists and is in a condition to be tested and that the chain of custody is sufficient to establish that it hasn’t been tampered, replaced or altered.
“It is therefore ordered that the testing be performed by the Texas Department of Public Safety and completed as soon as possible, and that the results of such be forwarded to the Court,” the proposed order read. “It is further ordered that upon the completion of testing, the evidence shall be retained by the Department of Public Safety until further Order.”
