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LINCOLN — A former Gage County, Nebraska, prosecutor decided against running DNA tests in 1989 to help resolve unanswered questions in the cold-case killing of a Beatrice grandmother.

One reason? The $350 lab fees were deemed too expensive.

A federal court jury on Wednesday slammed Gage County with a $28 million verdict for a reckless investigation that sent the wrong people to prison for the 1985 rape and homicide of Helen Wilson. DNA testing in 2008 cleared the six people who collectively spent more than 70 years locked up.

In 1989, investigators relied heavily on confessions from three suspects with histories of mental illness, two of whom told authorities that their memories came from dreams and nightmares. And investigators proceeded with the prosecutions even though none of the six perfectly matched the perpetrator’s blood or could be conclusively tied to his semen.

“They stole my brother from me. And there’s no amount of money that could replace the years that we lost from him,” said Nancy Aspinwall, the sister of Joseph E. White, the only one of the six to refuse a plea bargain. Her brother died in a workplace accident in 2011, less than three years after winning his freedom.