DNA that links an Arlington assault suspect to two Illinois homicides doesn't necessarily mean charges will soon be dropped against another man jailed for the slayings for five years, legal experts said.
And prosecutors must establish other links between Jorge "George" Torrez, a former Marine accused of two Arlington-area attacks, and the 2005 killing of Laura Hobbs, 8, and Krystal Tobias, 9, in Zion, Ill., before charging him, according to experts.
Laura's father, Jerry Hobbs, has spent the past five years in jail awaiting trial in the slayings.
Torrez, who previously lived in Zion, is in custody at the Arlington County Detention Facility. Arlington police say Torrez robbed and tried to abduct one woman and raped another in separate incidents in February.
It's hard to make a case solely based on DNA, said David Bernstein, a professor at the George Mason University School of Law. But once investigators have DNA evidence, he said, "you can usually work backward to put the pieces together."
Before charging Torrez -- or dropping charges against Hobbs -- experts say prosecutors must consider factors like whether Torrez had an alibi and access to the victims and the area where they were killed.
Now having two suspects puts prosecutors in a bind, said Douglas Godfrey, a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law. That's especially true because prosecutors were pursuing the death penalty against Hobbs, he said.
"Once you have said, 'we think we have such a strong case that we're going to ask a jury to put this man to death' and then new evidence comes out that he might not even be the killer, that reflects very poorly on the prosecutors," Godfrey said.
Some say Hobbs should have been released long ago. Authorities say his DNA doesn't match the semen found on Laura's body.
"Why has he been languishing in jail despite the DNA exclusion?" said Rob Worden, a Northwestern University law professor who runs the school's Center on Wrongful Convictions.
But prosecutors are reluctant to admit errors, Bernstein said, and will likely only release Hobbs and charge Torrez if the evidence against Torrez is "airtight."