PRINCESS ANNE, Md. – Troopers from the Maryland State Police Princess Anne Barrack say they issued a criminal summons for a Crisfield man after his DNA matched DNA found at the scene of a burglary.
Police responded to a reported burglary on Sept. 9, 2014, on the 3000 block of Hinman Lane in Crisfield. According to police, the victim said that his father had recently died, and that someone had broken into his father’s home and removed coins from a safe, which was kept inside the master bedroom closet. Troopers discovered plaster lying on the hallway floor and the destroyed safe along with numerous empty boxes of collectible coins, according to police.
Troopers collected evidence from the scene and sent it to the Maryland State Police Crime Lab for DNA testing. Police said on April 9, 2015, a DNA hit came back from the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division. The DNA collected from the scene of the crime was entered into the National DNA Index System and matched to a Maryland convicted offender, according to police.
Police said the DNA matched Donald Robert Wharton, 51, of Crisfield. Wharton shared a property line with the victim, according to investigators. Wharton’s DNA was then collected for comparison, and was returned to the lab on July 22, police said. Troopers said the DNA collected from the scene of the crime matched Wharton’s DNA. According to police, the probability of of randomly selecting an unrelated individual with this DNA profile at 15 of 15 loci tested is: 1 in 100 quadrillion in the us Caucasian population 1 in 20 quintillion of the us African American population 1 in 1.1 quintillion in the us Hispanic population.
On July 24, a criminal summons was issued for Wharton charging him with first-degree burglary and theft.
