LOCKPORT – State Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr. advised a Niagara Falls man charged with raping a woman last year to give a DNA sample, after the prosecutor said Wednesday there was a possibility the woman had sex with another man before biological evidence was recovered from her body.
“I would not be shocked if there was an exoneration here,” Kloch told Christopher Thurston, 43, of Linwood Avenue, who is charged with first-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act, stemming from an alleged encounter with a woman on the night of June 9-10.
Thurston, who is in jail awaiting trial, huddled with his attorney, E. Earl Key, who asked for and was given a week to think over the request from Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Zucco for a DNA sample. Thurston’s trial, which was set for May 6, has been postponed indefinitely, although Kloch said it would happen before the end of June.
“I would not be shocked if there was an exoneration here,” Kloch told Christopher Thurston, 43, of Linwood Avenue, who is charged with first-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act, stemming from an alleged encounter with a woman on the night of June 9-10.
Thurston, who is in jail awaiting trial, huddled with his attorney, E. Earl Key, who asked for and was given a week to think over the request from Assistant District Attorney Robert A. Zucco for a DNA sample. Thurston’s trial, which was set for May 6, has been postponed indefinitely, although Kloch said it would happen before the end of June.