Test results in Silk Plant Forest inquiry could be compared to DNA from Smith, Lamoureux, police say

If newly discovered evidence turned up by the Winston-Salem Police Department’s internal investigation into its handling of the 1995 Silk Plant Forest-Jill Marker assault case yields DNA profiles, that evidence could be compared to DNA samples from Kalvin Michael Smith and Kenneth Lamoureux, Police Chief Scott Cunningham said on Wednesday.

Smith was convicted by a Forsyth County jury in 1997 of assaulting Marker during an armed robbery of the Silk Plant Forest shop. He is currently serving a 23 to 29-year prison sentence. Smith has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence. Lamoureux was an early suspect in the case.

Last week, Cunningham announced that the internal review revealed that some of the physical evidence seized by investigators had never been sent out for testing. Marker’s clothes, a piece of cardboard with blood and hair on it and cigarette butts found at the scene of the crime have now been sent to the State Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab and LabCorp, an independent testing facility, “to determine if it contains any identifiable forensic information,” Cunningham said.

“The purpose of the examination is to determine if evidence exists, and if so then it will be tested to reveal the profile and then compared to persons of interest in the case, and then if needed to the various DNA databases,” he added.

The items are listed on inventory sheets of physical evidence seized by police investigators during the 1995 investigation. The evidence sheets were provided to former Forsyth County District Attorney Tom Keith and Smith’s trial lawyer, William Speaks, but "no one ever asked that it be tested," Cunningham said.

According to the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Review Committee report, Lamoureux submitted to a polygraph examination in the early stages of former Detective Donald R. Williams’ investigation. Lonnie Maines, the former detective who administered the polygraph, wrote in his report that Lamoureux’s answer to the question, “Did you strike, push or assault a woman inside the Silk Plant Forest?” indicated “a great deal of deception.”

During its 18-month investigation, the Silk Plant Forest Citizens Review Committee requested a blind reading of Lamoureux’s polygraph charts, but inexplicably, the charts could not be found in the Winston-Salem Police Department’s files.