Judge approves convicted killer's request to test DNA 36 years after murders

Show Caption Hide Caption VIDEO: Convicted murderer James Koedatich back in Morris County Superior Court James Koedatich in Morris County Superior Court. The convicted murderer wants his DNA tested to prove he did not rape and murder Parsippany teenager Amie Hoffman in 1982.

MORRISTOWN — Convicted killer James Koedatich, in plain beige prison garb and handcuffed with chains that wrapped around his waist, slowly walked into a court room Monday morning.

An officer pointed him to a chair in the front row of the juror area where he sat for a moment.

Serving two life sentences for kidnapping and fatally stabbing two Morris County women in 1982, Koedatich was in court following up on a motion he filed requesting DNA recovered from the 18-year-old victim be tested to prove he did not rape and murder her, according to his lawyer.

Bald with a groomed grey beard, the inmate received a handshake from Edward Bilinkas, his court-appointed defense lawyer. Police then led him around the outer edge of the gallery to his seat. As a single camera shutter clicked, Koedatich gazed at the handful of spectators in courtroom. Victim's rights advocate Richard Pompelio, seated in the front row, gazed squarely back.

Among the murdered was 18-year-old Parsippany Hills High School senior Amie Hoffman, according to court documents. A cheerleader at the time, she was abducted in 1982 after she left her job at the Surprise Store at the Morris County Mall in Hanover Township. Her body, bearing multiple stab wounds, was found two days later in a water holding tank in Randolph Township.

"It’s real déjà vu for me," said Pompelio, adding that it was around this time 28 years ago when Koedatich was put on trial for Hoffman's death before the same judge, Superior Court Judge Donald Collester.

Leading up to Monday's court proceedings Koedatich had filed a motion requesting DNA recovered from the 18-year-old victim be tested to "prove" he did not rape and murder her, according to his lawyer.

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Before any such testing could occur, the New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences DNA Laboratory needed to determine whether any of five microscopic slide samples taken from Hoffman's body during an autopsy contained intact sperm cells.

The laboratory determined that two of the five samples were vaginal slides.

Collester, on Monday, ordered one slide be tested for potential DNA evidence after hearing testimony from Morris County Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Schellhorn, Koedatich, and Bilinkas.

In agreeing Koedatich acknowledged the testing of the slide would consume the entire sample. He also said: "I understand you count five but it started out with 12. I'm wondering what happened to the rest of them."

Bilinkas said the other vaginal slide sample will remain untouched and "based on that we have no problem with the procedure set forth by the prosecutor."

If a DNA profile is recovered from the slide Koedatich has agreed to be swabbed for a comparison. Schellhorn said the Morris County Sheriff's Office Crime Scene Investigation unit will most likely conduct Koedatich's DNA swab, and that he anticipates results from the state DNA laboratory within six weeks.

A status conference has been scheduled for Sept. 10 and the judge ordered Koedatich again be brought up from Trenton State Prison at that time.

Koedatich has the right to request DNA testing under a 2013 law that permits incarcerated, convicted killers to file motions for such testing. In 1982 DNA testing was not an established science that could be used in the courtroom. DNA was deemed scientifically reliable as evidence in New Jersey courtrooms in 1996.

Koedatich was also convicted in the murder of Deirdre O'Brien, 25, of Mendham Township two weeks after Hoffman was killed. He is not looking to have the O'Brien murder case re-opened. He was convicted of kidnapping and murdering O'Brien on Dec. 5, 1982.

Koedatich's appeals of the two convictions have long been exhausted and he is serving consecutive life sentences at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

The Hoffman and O'Brien murders were capital punishment cases, but the O'Brien jury was not unanimous in voting for death so his sentence was life. The Hoffman jury handed down a death penalty, but the Supreme Court reversed and remanded for a new death penalty phase in 1988. The new jury did not vote for the death penalty.

Koedatich also served 11 years in prison prior to the 1982 murders after he was convicted of killing his roommate in Florida in the 1970s. According to news accounts, while serving that sentence he killed an inmate, which was ruled self-defense. He was released from the Florida prison in 1982 and returned to his hometown of Morristown, a few months before the murders, according to news accounts.

Follow Jai Agnish on Twitter: @JaiAgnish. Email: agnish@northjersey.com