Madison Meehan
1/30/20
Forensics D Odd
Current Event 14
Padilla, Mariel. “California Father Is Charged With Murdering Five of His Infant Children.” The
New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Jan. 2020,
In 2007 a fisherman found an infant’s remains in a sealed container near Sacramento. The infant was killed by blunt force trauma. The investigation went on for twelve years because investigators couldn’t identify the child. Finally, in October of 2019 investigators were able to identify the child using a new technique of DNA comparison. They found out that he was a 1-month-old baby named Nikko Lee Perez. The investigators realized that the father of the baby, Paul Perez, was serving time in prison already. He was arrested for the torture and murder of his baby and had killed four other infants in a similar way from 1992 to 2001. Sherrif Tom Lopez of Yolo County stated, “In my 40 years of law enforcement, I cannot think of a case more disturbing than this one”. It would take months before prosecutors woulf decide whether to seek capital punishment due to his charges of five counts of first-degree murder.
They began the search for the infants family by using the federal Combined DNA Index System but it was unsuccessful. Edward Medrano, the departments chief, stated “Using DNA technology developed by scientists at the California Department of Justice, we were able to create a list of potential siblings and parents of the victim.” This was the first time the “kinship-based search using the existing database technology” was used. They also found that Perez killed all of his children when they were infants.
The use of this new DNA technology helped put a guilty man behind bars. I learned a lot while reading this article specifically about how difficult it can be to match someone’s DNA and find out who they are. One thing I would change about this article to make it better would be for the author to explain more about the DNA process itself. I learned a lot but they could have been a little more specific. Overall I really enjoyed learning about this technology and believe the article was very well written and informative.
3 comments:
Jordan Hoang
Mr.Ippolito
Forensics C Odd
1/3/20
Padilla, Mariel. “California Father Is Charged With Murdering Five of His Infant Children.” The
New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Jan. 2020,
www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/us/paul-perez-california-infant-murders.html.
Madison’s review of the article “California Father Is Charged With Murdering Five of His Infant Children.” was very thorough and easy to understand. I thought Madison did a nice job of organizing her words so that we could comprehend the sequence of events. I also enjoyed how Madison incorporated a quote from the sheriff, noting that “in my 40 years of law enforcement, I cannot think of a case more disturbing than this one”. It was able to emphasize the severity of this crime and bring to light how important it was to solve this case.
One thing I believe Madison could improve on is including more about her own thoughts. She summarized the article nicely but didn’t include a lot about how she thinks it impacts our society. Furthermore, while some of her quotes incorporated nicely into her piece, I believe some of them could have paraphrased. This would have made her summary shorter and more concise.
It is nice to hear that crimes that were originally unsolved can now be deduced because of the improvements in forensic technology. Not only this, but those who were wrongfully convicted can finally be proven innocent. It will be exciting to see what other beneficial advancements we can make in the future due to improvements in technology.
Lorelei Heath
Current Event 14
Mr. Ippolito
February 3rd, 2020
Padilla, Mariel. “California Father Is Charged With Murdering Five of His Infant Children.” The
New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Jan. 2020,
www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/us/paul-perez-california-infant-murders.html.
Madison’s analysis of the article was very detailed and was supported greatly. She begins her summary by introducing the story. She provides background and what happened during the time of the crime. I sincerely enjoyed this case, it was interesting and to the point. Madison also added context from the passage which also gives a better understanding.
Madison’s review was very well written in the summary, but she needs to add more forensic evidence and explanation in her of how it is used. And she could have explained her thoughts on the tests the scientists made from the evidence. Overall, her review was good but could use more information on forensic science.
This article was very interesting and went over the information I already knew before. This article was a review for everyone who is in class. It went over DNA in which we learned in class. As a result, I enjoyed reading the article and her review.
Charlotte Dotson
Mr. Ippolito
Current Event 15
2/6/20
Padilla, Mariel. “California Father Is Charged With Murdering Five of His Infant Children.” The
New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Jan. 2020,
www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/us/paul-perez-california-infant-murders.html.
Madison’s review of, “California Father Is Charged With Murdering Five of His Infant Children” was very informative and interesting. She did a great job with her summary which provided a well-written narrative of the disturbing story. Secondly, I think she did a good job integrating quotes that supported her point without overusing quotes. The quotes provided a good insight into the events the perspective the sheriff particularly has on this case.
One thing Madison could have improved was her analysis. She did a great job recounting the facts and story of the article, but I would have liked to hear more about her own opinions on the matter towards the end of the review. Secondly, Madison could have more directly stated how this case relates to forensic science.
Overall, Madison’s review was very well-written. I enjoyed both the article and the review, as it correlates with what we have learned in this course. New technologies for testing DNA evidence are revolutionizing forensic science and I look forward to seeing what other advancements the field will make.
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