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FBI awards West Virginia State Police lab and Martinsburg PD for NGI-driven homicide ID
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Summary
The FBI presented its 2022 Biometric Identification Award to the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory and the Martinsburg Police Department after the lab used the Next Generation Identification system (NGI) to generate a suspect lead in a July 27, 2017, homicide that led to a conviction.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation presented the 2022 Biometric Identification Award to the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory and the Martinsburg Police Department for using the Next Generation Identification system (NGI) to help identify a suspect in a 2017 homicide.
At the award presentation, Speaker 2 recounted that on July 27, 2017, officers responded to a shooting and found a victim who later died at the hospital. Witnesses gave a consistent description and said they only knew the suspect by the name or alias "Tee." Officers followed leads to a trailer outside city limits, recovered property and submitted evidence, including a sheet of porous notebook paper, to the state forensic laboratory for latent-print processing.
Speaker 4 of the West Virginia State Police Forensic Laboratory said examiners developed two latent prints from the notebook paper, searched the West Virginia database with negative results and then searched the prints through NGI. "When I got the top NGI candidate, I did a charted enlargement," the speaker said. The laboratory reported a candidate after first and supervisory verification, and Speaker 4 said, "Due to NGI, we were able to identify a potential suspect in less than 24 hours for a homicide." The NGI candidate was used to obtain a photograph and conduct a photo lineup in which witnesses identified the suspect.
Speaker 2 said the result identified a male named Marcus Ben. Officers obtained a murder warrant, arrested the man in Washington County, Maryland, extradited him to West Virginia, and the defendant pleaded guilty to second-degree murder; the speaker said the sentence is now 25 years.
Speakers 3 and 4 urged other agencies to submit prints to NGI, saying agencies that do not submit prints "aren't utilizing all the resources available to them." Speaker 1 closed the presentation by urging agencies to "Tap into the power of NGI," directing listeners to www.fbi.gov and providing an email, biometrichip@leo.gov, for award submissions.
The award citation and the lab's account emphasize NGI's role in enabling a nationwide latent-print search that contributed to a rapid investigative lead, photo-lineup identification, and subsequent prosecution. No formal votes or motions were recorded in the presentation.
