Cigarette butt smokes out Limerick burglar

A judge, referring to the significance of DNA evidence that linked a Philadelphia man to a cigarette butt left behind by a Limerick burglar, sent the man to state prison.
“He doesn’t want you to hear that 190 billion to 1 that he was in the house. A jury didn’t convict him with circumstantial evidence… but with evidence his DNA was in the house,” Montgomery County Judge Steven T. O’Neill said Monday as he sentenced James Francis DePaul to 6½ to 18 years in a state correctional facility in connection with the Dec. 17, 2008, break-in at a home on Metka Road in Limerick. DePaul, 26, of Lawndale Avenue, was convicted by a jury in October of charges of burglary, criminal trespass and theft by unlawful taking.

The jury reached the verdict after hearing testimony that DePaul’s DNA was discovered on a cigarette butt that Limerick police found at the scene of the burglary, apparently left behind by DePaul. At the time of the burglary, which netted DePaul $200 in cash, DePaul was residing in a halfway house in Philadelphia while in a state Department of Corrections’ pre-release program under a state sentence he was serving for a 2004 Abington convenience store robbery during which he stole cigarettes. “This is a defendant who committed a serious offense while serving a sentence for a serious offense. This defendant is a high risk individual. Protection of the community and safety of the community is of paramount importance to this court,” said O’Neill, who presided over the jury trial in October. Despite the DNA evidence on a cigarette that proved to be the smoking gun, DePaul continued to profess his innocence.

Assistant District Attorney Kathleen Colgan sought a lengthy state prison sentence against DePaul, arguing he previously was given chances to turn his life around and instead committed other crimes. “He was on an early release program when he committed this offense. He’s damaging the integrity of our justice system and of the early release program. He’s toying with the justice system, your honor,” Colgan argued.

“He is a danger to the community.” DePaul, supported in court by more than a dozen relatives, some of whom called him “a good boy,” begged the judge for leniency. “It’s always been his position - he’s maintained his innocence throughout. I am asking for a second chance for Mr. DePaul. I think he can thrive on a second chance,” defense lawyer Andres Jalon argued to the judge.