Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot has announced that Christopher Michael Green will spend the rest of his life in prison after a Dallas County jury found him guilty of Aggravated Sexual Assault. The 52-year-old defendant was charged in a 2005 cold case attack on a young mother whom he sexually assaulted at knifepoint. This case marks the first jury trial in Dallas County history to utilize Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) as an investigative tool to help identify the suspect.
“We have been working this case with the Dallas Police Department since we started the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) almost a decade ago,” said lead prosecutor Leighton D’Antoni. “I remember long-time Dallas Police Department Sex Assaults Detective Todd Haecker telling me this was his ‘white whale.’ We exhausted every investigative tool without success until the DA’s Office and DPD began working with the FBI Dallas Violent Crimes Task Force, which finally cracked this case.”
During the punishment phase, evidence of five additional violent assaults allegedly committed by Mr. Green was presented, along with powerful testimony from the survivors— four of whom were between the ages of 15-17 at the time of their attacks
“You chose your path,” said one of the survivors. “I have been waiting for this day for 24 years.”
Throughout the trial, Mr. Green maintained his innocence and testified during punishment he did not commit any of these aggravated sexual assaults, but based on the compelling testimony and DNA evidence, the jury swiftly returned a guilty verdict and handed down a life sentence.
“Predators can’t live with the truth. Survivors can’t live without it. The truth came to light in this courtroom,” lead prosecutor ADA Leighton D’Antoni said in his closing argument.
Use of Innovative Genetic Genealogy and Traditional DNA
Law enforcement first identified a suspect DNA profile in one of these cases back in 2001. Over the next 15 years, the same DNA profile appeared in five more cases. However, without a prior felony conviction, Mr. Green's DNA was not in the national database, preventing a match. IGG is what provided a breakthrough -- enabling investigators to link unknown offender DNA profiles to familial connections, ultimately leading them to Green. Although IGG serves as an investigative lead and not as trial evidence, it helped put Green on the investigators' radar. Four of the six survivors identified Green in a photo lineup, but Detective Carlos Cardenas sought further confirmation, obtaining a search warrant for Green’s DNA via a buccal swab. The DNA was a perfect match in all six cases. This traditional (STR) DNA evidence, the gold standard for forensic identification since 1986, was what prosecutors presented at trial and confirmed Green’s identity.
As one of the survivors put it in her victim impact statement, “Science proved that you’re it. Nobody else shares your DNA.”
Collaboration Leads to Justice
The successful prosecution of this case was the result of the dedication of the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney’s Office Cold Case Team (SAKI). Special thanks to ADA Klarissa Diaz, ADA Haley Pratt, Inv. Jon Wakefield, Inv. Lee Thompson, Inv. Abigail Cruz, and Victim Advocates Roquel Mayhorn, Adriana Sellers, and Mackenzie Kile. We also thank the Dallas Police Department, particularly Det. Carlos Cardenas, Det. Todd Haecker, and Det. Noe Camacho, along with the FBI Dallas Violent Crimes Task Force.
“This kind of collaboration along with DNA advancements are and will continue to revolutionize the solving of cold cases in Dallas County for years to come,” ADA D’Antoni said.
Thanks to creative thinking years earlier by Administrative Chief Amy Derrick and Cold Case Chief D’Antoni, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office was awarded funding by the Department of Justice (SAKI Grant) that would allow them to successfully prosecute these difficult cold case sexual assaults and cold case homicides committed primarily by serial rapists and serial killers.
Assistant District Attorney D’Antoni served as lead trial prosecutor. Assistant District Attorney Klarissa Diaz sat second chair for the trial and picked the jury that convicted Mr. Green.
