Can DNA travel from hand to hand like a sneaky bird and land, at random, on the cash drawer of a bar that has just been broken into.
This is the thesis defended by Me Jennifer Madar, lawyer for Kamel B, 44 years old, accused of having kidnapped, sliced and robbed the owner of a drink outlet in Bondy.
On October 5, 2019, he was found in underwear, his body tied up in ties.
The apartment was turned over and the keys to his bar were stolen.
The establishment was indeed visited.
The cash drawer is discovered gaping and emptied of the thousand euros it contained.
Investigators meticulously collect clues and manage to extract a DNA trace from the case.
They do the same in the apartment.
The isolated DNA fingerprint will speak.
It allows to go directly back to Kamel B. A man already well known to justice for his past as a robber but also for a dark case of kidnapping.
He will be arrested more than a year after the facts, on December 8.
In his stony voice, he kills the “traveler” DNA card in court.
A thesis that he has always supported.
At the time he was a real estate agent and the future victim was looking to sell his business.
“I walked around, was able to manipulate the cash drawer to see if it was working.
I wanted to check everything before buying ”.
The defendant risks: "We may have shook hands."
This is where the famous DNA transfer took place.
Demonstration "far-fetched" according to the prosecutor
The prosecutor Mathieu Normand remains very dubious in front of a demonstration which he considers “far-fetched”: “This DNA on the cash drawer is still a strange coincidence.
It is not something that is walking around ”.
He continues: "even if he was alcoholic, the owner of the bar does not remember having met you".
He also reminds her that “kidnapping is not something that scares you”.
He claims 4 years in prison.
His lawyer comes forward and scans the analysis of the prosecution: “DNA is not the queen of evidence.
Yes, DNA travels, ”she asserts, producing a study published in the American Journal of Forensic Sciences at the University of Minneapolis.
It gives credence to the idea that there can be "a secondary transfer of DNA when we shake our hands."
This manipulation can carry DNA and it may have ended up on the cash register ”.
She knows that her client is not "a partridge of the year".
According to her, he would never have made that big rookie mistake of not taking gloves.
The court was not convinced.
Kamel B. was sentenced to two years in prison.