DNA on slain man’s clothing cracks 2007 cold case, California cops say. ‘Rest easy dad’

A man accused of shooting another man dead outside his home in 2007 has been sentenced, California police say.

Desante Blake, 40, was sentenced to 23 years in prison after pleading no contest to multiple charges, including manslaughter and attempted robbery, in Larry Abercrombie’s death, the Pittsburg Police Department said in a Sept. 25 Facebook post.

“Finally. Rest easy dad ,” Abercrombie’s daughter wrote on Facebook. “23 years won’t make up for the years of love we have and will miss out on but GOD will do his work.”

Abercrombie was found with multiple gunshot wounds outside his home on June 8, 2007, the department said in a June 2023 Facebook post announcing Blake’s arrest.

Police said investigators conducted “extensive investigation at the time,” but no arrests were made.

The case then went cold for almost two decades, police said.

But last year, a breakthrough came when a cold case detective submitted evidence — touch DNA from Abercrombie’s clothing — to the county’s crime lab for testing, according to police.

“ Touch DNA is simply DNA that is transferred via skin cells when an object is handled or touched,” according to Suzanna Ryan, a forensic DNA consultant.

The process of testing touch DNA doesn’t require anything more than “seven or eight cells from the outermost layer of our skin,” according to Scientific American.

This DNA profile was uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System , a national database of DNA profiles, according to police.

It was a match to Blake’s DNA, police said.

Investigators then learned a search warrant was conducted at Blake’s home in 2010, police said.

At the time, investigators found “a handgun magazine, gun box, and purchase receipt for the firearm used” in the fatal shooting, according to police. But the gun was missing.

Investigators again searched Blake’s home in Antioch last year, however, and found a gun “hidden in a jacket pocket in his closet,” police said.

Ballistic testing confirmed the gun was the one used in the 2007 shooting, according to police.

Additionally, more of Blake’s DNA was tested and again linked him to the crime scene, police said.

“The arrest in this cold case homicide serves as a reminder that justice can be served no matter how much time has passed,” police said after Blake’s arrest in June 2023.

Pittsburg is about a 60-mile drive southwest from Sacramento.

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