By Associate Press
Carbondale, IL – A judge has granted prosecutors permission to obtain DNA samples from a 20-year-old suburban Chicago man accused of killing three family members of SIU Carbondale journalism student Jeff Engelhardt.
The order from the judge came during a hearing Monday during which prosecutors said D'Andre Howard's DNA would be compared with blood from palm and fingerprints found on a kitchen knife and bloody footprints around the house.
Howard was injured, so there is a possibility some of the blood is his.
Howard is accused of wielding a butcher knife to fatally stab Engelhardt's younger sister, father and grandmother after an argument with his older sister.
Howard is held without bond and prosecutors are deciding whether to seek the death penalty. Jeff Engelhardt is the incoming managing editor of the Daily Egyptian.
