Sheppard Case Closed Despite Dna Findings New Evidence Inadmissible In Court, County Prosecutor Says

Prosecutors on Thursday refused to reopen an investigation into the slaying of Dr. Sam Sheppard’s wife despite new DNA tests his defenders say will finally clear him of the 1954 killing.

Though she had not seen the test results released at a news conference earlier in the day, county prosecutor Stephanie Tubbs Jones said they would be inadmissible in court because they were run on contaminated, 44-year-old samples.

She also accused Terry Gilbert, lawyer for the couple’s only son, Sam Reese Sheppard, of using the press to sway the Ohio Supreme Court.

“All I can say is shame on you, Terry Gilbert,” she said.

Gilbert said the tests vindicate Sheppard and implicate handyman Richard Eberling in the case that inspired the TV series and movie “The Fugitive.”

Sheppard, Gilbert said, “is out of it. He is not the murderer of Marilyn Sheppard … We now have conclusive evidence that Dr. Sheppard did not kill his wife.”

A forensic scientist, working for free on behalf of the younger Sheppard, found that Sheppard’s DNA was missing from bloodstains on the doctor’s pants and three other places in the couple’s suburban Cleveland home, bolstering Sheppard’s claim that an intruder killed his wife.

One stain came from a wardrobe door less than two feet away from the bed where Mrs. Sheppard, four months pregnant with the couple’s second child, was beaten to death.

Eberling’s DNA could be present in all the stains, although it is not certain, said Dr. Mohammad Tahir, a forensics expert from Indianapolis.

Sheppard’s body was exhumed in September so that tissue samples could be examined by Tahir.

Gilbert said Tubbs Jones should reopen the criminal investigation - this time focusing on Eberling. Sheppard always said that a bushy-haired intruder killed his wife and knocked him unconscious after a struggle.

Sam Reese Sheppard, 50, of Oakland, Calif., has been working for years to clear his father’s name. He thinks Eberling, a window washer at the Sheppard home, committed the slaying.

Eberling, who provided DNA samples under court order, is in prison for the 1984 murder of an elderly widow and has denied killing Marilyn Sheppard. He refused interviews Thursday.

Sheppard was found guilty of murder and spent 10 years in prison, until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction. He was acquitted at a retrial in 1966 and died four years later at age 46.

His estate is suing Ohio, alleging wrongful imprisonment. The estate could collect about $2 million if the doctor is found innocent, a tougher legal standard than a “not guilty” verdict.

Prosecutors have asked the Ohio Supreme Court to dismiss the suit. A ruling is expected this spring.

Tahir’s tests showed that Eberling could not be ruled out as a match for bloodstains from Sheppard’s pants, the wardrobe door, a wood chip from a basement stair and a stain on the back porch. He said Eberling also could not be ruled out as the source of DNA found on two vaginal swabs taken during Mrs. Sheppard’s autopsy.

But he could not say for certain that Eberling was there. There is a “consistent pattern” that is similar to Eberling’s DNA, but would not say what the chances are that the blood and semen were from Eberling.

Eberling has said he cut himself while working at the Sheppard house.