Alfred Swinton

The Crime

Shortly before 5 a.m. on Jan. 13, 1991, the body of 28-year-old Carla Terry was found in a snowbank close to the Vine Street entrance to Keney Park near the University of Hartford in Hartford, Connecticut. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

The Investigation

Police focused on 42-year-old Alfred Swinton after witnesses said they had seen him talking to Ms. Terry in a nearby tavern a few hours before her body was found. Police obtained a search warrant for Mr. Swinton’s apartment, which was a short walk from where Ms. Terry’s body was discovered.

During the search, they found a black bra in a basement common area. Although Ms. Terry’s sister, Laverne Terry, said she did not recognize the garment, police believed that Mr. Swinton had killed Ms. Terry after she refused to trade sex for drugs and that he had taken the bra as a “trophy.”

After a forensic odontologist, Dr. Lester Luntz, concluded that bite marks on Ms. Terry’s breasts appeared to have been made by Mr. Swinton’s teeth, police arrested him on June 25, 1991. However, in August 1991, after the forensic analyst said there was no way to determine whether the bite marks were made at the same time that Ms. Terry was murdered, Mr. Swinton was released because the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to charge him with Ms. Terry’s murder.

More than six years later, in October 1998, Mr. Swinton was again arrested for Ms. Terry’s murder after Dr. Gus Karazulas, the chief forensic odontologist for the Connecticut State Police Forensic Science Laboratory, re-examined the evidence and concluded that the bite marks had been made not long before Ms. Terry was killed.

The Trial

In January 2001, Mr. Swinton went to trial in the Superior Court in Hartford. Ms. Terry’s sister, Laverne Terry — who in 1991 had told police she did not recognize the black bra — now testified that it, in fact, belonged to her niece who had loaned it to Ms. Terry. 

Edward McDonough, deputy chief medical examiner for the state who had conducted an autopsy, testified that Ms. Terry died of asphyxia by manual strangulation. Taking into account the 27-degree temperature at the time, Dr. McDonough estimated the time of death as approximately two or three hours before Ms. Terry’s body arrived at the hospital. Dr. McDonough noted bruising on Ms. Terry’s scalp consistent with blows to the head, and abrasions on Ms. Terry’s neck. Dr. McDonough said he had photographed crescent-shaped bruises on each of Ms. Terry’s breasts that he identified as being consistent with bite marks. 

Dr. Karazulas testified that bite mark analysis was an exact science that could link an individual to a bite mark to the exclusion of all other individuals, a practice that has since been disproven. Dr. Karazulas said he compared Mr. Swinton’s teeth to the marks on Ms. Terry’s body and determined to a “reasonable medical certainty without any reservation” that Mr. Swinton made the bite marks.

Dr. Karazulas claimed that Mr. Swinton’s dentition was permanently recorded in Ms. Terry’s skin, which allowed him to definitively identify Mr. Swinton as the one and only person who bit Ms. Terry, based on autopsy photos taken nearly three days after Ms. Terry’s death.

Witnesses testified they saw Mr. Swinton talking to Ms. Terry in Kenney’s Grill between 1 and 2 a.m. When Ms. Terry left, Mr. Swinton remained. 

James Arnold, who was incarcerated at the Webster Correctional Institution and admitted to having a heroin addiction, claimed on two occasions in 1991, Mr. Swinton told him he bit Ms. Terry. Cynthia Stallings, who habitually used drugs, testified that in August 1991, Mr. Swinton said that the authorities “had” him “through the teeth marks” that were found on Ms. Terry’s breasts.

Michael Scalise testified that while he was in jail with Mr. Swinton prior to Mr. Swinton’s trial, Mr. Swinton told him he had sex with Ms. Terry, bit her on the breasts, killed her, and took her bra. Police subsequently equipped Mr. Scalise with a hidden tape recorder, but Mr. Swinton only ever said that he was innocent.

Forensic dentist Neal Riesner testified for the defense that Mr. Swinton’s teeth had not left the bite marks. Dr. Riesner testified that the images used by Dr. Karazulas were too blurry to allow for a positive match and that a computer enhancement falsely increased the appearance of a match.

On Mar. 21, 2001, the jury convicted Mr. Swinton of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison.

In May 2004, the Connecticut Supreme Court upheld Mr. Swinton’s conviction.

The Exoneration

In 2014 and 2015, at the request of the Connecticut Innocence Project, DNA testing was performed on the bite mark swabs, and identified male DNA that did not belong to Mr. Swinton. DNA testing of the bra revealed the presence of skin cells that did not match Ms. Terry or Mr. Swinton — suggesting that Ms. Terry had never worn it. Anal and vaginal swabs also were tested. The testing excluded Mr. Swinton and revealed unidentified male DNA.

In 2015, the Innocence Project took over Mr. Swinton’s representation and enlisted the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom. Subsequently, DNA testing of the fingernail scrapings of Ms. Terry excluded Mr. Swinton.

In the nearly two decades since Dr. Karazulas had testified at Mr. Swinton’s trial, the scientific community had come to reject bite mark analysis as a forensic method capable of identifying a suspect. A 2009 report by the National Academy of Sciences found there is “no scientific basis for forensic odontologists (bite mark analysts) to proffer individualization testimony.”

The American Board of Forensic Odontologists, the accrediting board for bite mark experts, no longer permitted analysts to make a positive identification from bite mark comparisons.

In light of those developments, Innocence Project lawyers contacted Dr. Karazulas, who provided an affidavit saying he no longer believed Mr. Swinton was the source of the bite marks.

In January 2017, Innocence Project lawyers Chris Fabricant and Vanessa Potkin, along with Skadden attorneys Maura Barry Grinalds, Ed Tulin, and Thania Charmani, filed a motion for a new trial for Mr. Swinton.

In June 2017, the prosecution agreed to vacate Mr. Swinton’s conviction. On June 8, 2017, Mr. Swinton was released on bond.

On Mar. 1, 2018, the prosecution dismissed the case. Mr. Swinton subsequently filed a claim for compensation from the state of Connecticut and received $3.6 million in 2020.