Smoking – and littering – has proven to be bad for convicted burglar John Scheffler’s crime habit.
He might even have escaped prosecution had he not felt the urge to smoke a cigarette and then discard the butt at a crime scene in Northampton County (PA).
[sc name=”Article Mobile Ad” ]
But he did, police found that butt and were able to match the DNA found on it to Scheffler.
This week, a state Superior Court panel deep-sixed Scheffler’s argument that prosecutors shouldn’t have been allowed to used that butt-borne DNA against him.
According to the opinion by Judge Lillian Harris Ransom, Scheffler , 35, of Belvidere, N.J., claimed Pennsylvania State Police illegally obtained a sample of his DNA by swabbing his mouth while he was in prison on other charges in Warren County, N.J.
Ransom’s court rejected Scheffer’s claim that police didn’t have legal authority to take that DNA sample. They did, and there’s a valid search warrant to prove it, Ransom found.
Scheffler is serving a 2 1/2- to 5-year prison term for his convictions in a string of burglaries committed in Northampton County in 2014.
Scheffler also pleaded guilty to several burglaries committed in New Jersey between 2011 to 2013.