Rapist arrested in murder of 5

(This story appeared in the Feb. 6, 1997 issue of the San Gabriel Valley News.  Thanks to Dale Falicon, LASD, for the contribution)

SAN JOSE--—California authorities arrested a convicted rapist wanted in the deaths of five women whose bound, gagged and stabbed bodies were found in a northeast Oklahoma City house in 1992, police said Wednesday.

FBI agents and San Jose police arrested Danny Keith Hooks, 38, shortly before midnight Tuesday as they checked out a San Jose hotel where they believed he might be found.

FBI Agent George Grotz in San Francisco said officers spotted Hooks in the lobby area and arrested him without incident.

District Attorney Bob Macy charged Hooks last week with five counts of murder in the slayings of Sandra Thompson, 35, of Spencer; Phyllis Adams, 47, of Spencer; Lashawn Evans, 30, of Spencer; Carolyn Watson, 37, of Spencer and Fransill Roberts, 34, of Midwest City.

Oklahoma City police Sgt. Nate Tarver said investigators flew to San Jose to interrogate Hooks about the slayings. Police have a lot of unanswered questions about the deaths in which the five women were found in one room of a house rented by Thompson.

Tarver said Wednesday the house was a known drug house. The one--story structure sits in a predominantly African--American neighborhood known as Christian Valley.

The women were acquaintances.  Police Chief Sam Gonzales said Tuesday that although Hooks' name was mentioned once in the many reports generated during the original investigation, he had never been a suspect.

Police got their break in the case last week when a DNA sample found at the scene was matched to one Hooks was compelled to give in California.  The California Department of Justice contacted the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to tell the OSBI of the match, Gonzales said.

Grotz said Hooks was booked into Santa Clara County jail on a local warrant.  

Tarver said officers would ask Hooks if he wants to waive extradition to Oklahoma.

Hooks, who has relatives in Oklahoma, apparently had been living in the San Francisco area since his release from prison in August.

Hooks was further linked to the scene by matching a bloody palm print found at the crime scene with a print taken from Hooks during a Midwest City drunken--driving arrest, Midwest City Police spokesman Capt. Cecil Frymire said.

Hooks was convicted of rape in 1988 in California and had been released from prison in 1991.  He was arrested in 1992 in Oklahoma on a parole violation and returned to California.  California authorities said he was released from prison in August.

(Editor--—"Hooks was further linked to the scene by matching a bloody palm print found at the crime scene with a print taken from Hooks during a Midwest City drunken--driving arrest"--—the value of palm prints can't be overstated.  
    From a study we conducted in 1991 of LASD homicide investigations, we found that 76% of the cases with prints had palm latents and 20% of the cases only had palm latents.  Latent print examiners know that palmprint identifications are just as valuable in court as any fingerprint identification, but many agencies don't routinely obtain inked palm prints from suspects booked on misdemeanor arrests like drunk driving.  Congratulations to Midwest City, for doing what all should be doing.  With the technology maturing in AFIS searching of palm latents, it is important we place emphasis on collecting exemplars from this underused area of friction skin so comprehensive databases of exemplars will be available for future automation.)

This article was reprinted in “THE PRINT”
Volume 13(3) May/June 1997, pg 10
and has been obtained from the online library provided by the
Southern California Association of Fingerprint Officers
www.scafo.org