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Suspect escapes death sentence

From the archive, first published Wednesday 5th Jul 2000.

THE MAN accused of killing a New Forest DNA expert will not be sentenced to death if he is found guilty.

David Frediani is accused of murdering 35-year-old Helena Greenwood in San Fransisco on August 22, 1985 - just 21 days before she was due to testify that he raped her at gunpoint.

When her beaten and strangled body was found in her garden there was not enough evidence to link her death to the prime suspect.

Now, 15 years later, it is hoped that hi-tech DNA tests pioneered by the victim could trap her killer.

But a district attorney decided to seek life without parole for the 45-year-old, meaning Frediani would not face death if found guilty when tried in October.

District Attorney Paul Pfingst said he would not discuss reasons for the decision, except to say through a spokesman that he reviewed the evidence in the case and met with top prosecutors and Frediani's lawyer, David Bartick.

Speaking from his home in Bingham Drive, Lymington, Helena's father, Sydney Greenwood, 87, said that he was not disappointed that his daughter's killer would not face death.

"I just want justice to be done," he said.

"We thought there might be a chance that it would never come to this stage. I want it to be dealt with very quickly," he added.

Frediani's lawyers recently requested $500,000 bail for their client, claiming that DNA evidence against him is questionable and that the testimony Helena Greenwood was due to give in the rape case did not point to his guilt.

But the judge rejected the request, saying there was enough evidence to warrant keeping him in jail.

The case was reopened in December when the samples of skin scraping taken from Helena Greenwood's nails after the killing were re-examined in San Diego by the sheriff's homicide unit.

A full DNA profile of the killer was created and compared with blood samples taken from Frediani. Days later he was arrested.

Helena Greenwood moved to Atherton, San Francisco is 1977 with her long-term love, Southampton-born Roger Franklin.

She worked up the ranks in the relatively new science of DNA analysis, specialising in its development as a forensic detection tool.

In April 1984 she was raped at gunpoint in a three-hour ordeal.

In February 1985 Frediani was arrested while committing an obscene act. His fingerprints matched those of a single print taken from a teapot in Helena's house.

Helena came face to face with him at a preliminary hearing before he was granted bail and disappeared. His testimony from the preliminary hearing was used at trial and he was twice convicted of breaking into her home and raping her. Although the conviction was overturned on appeal, Frediani later pleaded no contest, a plea that does not admit guilt but is recorded as a criminal conviction. He served three years of a six-year sentence.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.

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