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More than two decades after a mother-of-three from Texas was convicted of murdering her five-year-old son, she hopes to prove her innocence with the help of a new round of DNA testing.
Darlie Lynn Routier was 27 years old in 1997 when a jury found her guilty of stabbing to death her middle son, Damon, on June 6, 1996, inside the family’s the home in the Dallas suburb of Rowlett.
Her eldest son six-year-old Devon, was also knifed to death that night, but the mother was never tried for his killing as prosecutors wanted the option to pursue a second indictment if they couldn’t get a conviction in the first trial.
Routier, 48, has spent the past 20 years on death row protesting her innocence. The Texas mother has always insisted her two sons were murdered by a lat-night intruder as they all slept together in the TV room.
Now, she has been given a sliver of hope as new DNA tests are underway on evidence in the case — some of which is being tested for the first time.
‘There’s never been nothing going on,’ said defense attorney Steve Cooper. ‘We’re just looking for a new trial.’
Seeking a new trial: Texas mother Darlie Router, pictured above with her three sons, has spent more than 20 years on death row for murdering 5-year-old Damon (left), and also stabbing to death 6-year-old Devon, though she was never tried for the latter
Routier (pictured in a recent mugshot, left), had told police an intruder broke into the home through, killed her sons and then slashed her neck (right) before fleeing
The grisly murders took place inside Darlie and Darin Routiers’ home in Rowlett, Texas (pictured), on the night of June 6, 1997
Cooper said as many as a dozen items are undergoing tests at the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab, among them specks of blood.
It comes more than a decade after Routier’s defense made a request to test DNA evidence from the scene of the time.
‘Multiple items of evidence’ have now been tested, with more to come, reportedNBC DFW.
‘It’s specks of blood, suspected blood or other DNA,’ Cooper said. ‘But this is really a blood case in various locations that has not been identified being Darlie’s or one of the boys.’
He said that some evidence had degraded over the years, meaning they could no longer test the DNA, but they remained hopeful they would find exculpatory evidence.
‘We don’t have that yet but we’re still working,’ he said.
Routier had told the police at the time that an intruder — a man with long hair, wearing a baseball hat, a dark T-shirt and jeans — broke into the home through a fiberglass window, killed her sons and then slashed her neck and shoulders before fleeing through a garage window.
One of the mother’s knife wounds came within 2 millimeters of severing the carotid artery.
Her youngest son, 18-month-old Drake, was sleeping upstairs with his father, Darin Routier, at the time of the killings and was unharmed.
Prosecutors contended that Routier was angry over money problems and the burdens of motherhood (pictured with her two eldest sons)
A trial exhibit shows bloodstains in the Routiers’ home after the knife attack
The mother suffered a slash to her neck and cuts to her shoulders (pictured in the hospital)
Dourier shows severe bruising on her right arm after the stabbing, which she blamed on an intruder
Darlie, a native of Altoona, Pennsylvania, met her future husband, Darin Routier, in Lubbock, Texas, when she was a teenager and he was the assistant manager of a restaurant. The couple dated for several years before marrying in 1988.
They settled in the Dallas area, where Darin Routier’s business testing circuit boards took off a few years later.
The couple spent their newfound wealth — as much as $500,000 a year — on a Jaguar, cabin-cruiser, vacations and an upscale home replete with a fountain in the front yard and hot tub in back.
But with the new purchases came hefty bills, and by May 1996 the Routiers owed $10,000 in back taxes, $12,000 on credit cards and two months of mortgage payments.
During the trial, prosecutors contended that Routier was angry over money problems and the burdens of motherhood, and that she slashed herself to cover the crime.
The prosecution repeatedly showed the court video of Routier giggling and spraying Silly String on her sons’ graves on what would have been Devon’s seventh birthday.
She was arrested just days after the graveside celebration, which her mother, Darlie Kee, said was the family’s way of dealing with their loss, as Dallas News reported.
The prosecution showed the jury this video of Routier giggling and spraying Silly String on her sons’ graves on what would have been Devon’s seventh birthday
Routier is escorted into the Mountain View unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in Gatesville, Texas, where she is now one of six women awaiting execution
It took the jury 10 hours spread over two days to convict Routier of capital murder.
Despite being found guilty and condemned to die, Routier’ mother, ex-husband, family and friends have stood by her over the years, insisting that she was innocent.
Routier’s supporters often point to a bloody sock that was found in the alley about 75 yards from the family’s home, with bloodspatters from the two children, as well as a bloody fingerprint that was found on a table near the body of one of the children.
Cooper, Routier’s lawyer, said when the fingerprint, known in the case as 85-J, was tested, no DNA could be extracted from it because it has degraded over time.
Routier’s case was featured on the multi-part docuseries The Last Defense exploring the failures of the American justice system, which aired on ABC over the summer.
Her sole surviving son, Drake, now in his early 20s, was diagnosed with leukemia two years ago, but the disease is said to be in remission.
For now, Routier, aged 48, remains on death row in Gatesville Prison, Texas, and is one of six women sentenced to death in the state.
No date has been set for her execution as the case continues to go through the state’s appellate court system.
The last woman to be put to death in Texas was Lisa Coleman, 38, who was given a lethal injection in 2014 for the starvation death of her girlfriend’s son.
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