ORLANDO, Fla. – DNA evidence has been released in the case of a Delaney Park man accused of murdering his wife.
In April 2018, David Tronnes claimed he found his wife Shanti Cooper-Tronnes dead in the shower but prosecutors believe he killed her in the bedroom.
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Tronnes’ defense team held onto bloody sheets for nearly a year without disclosing the evidence to police or prosecutors. The sheets came from the couple’s bedroom and have been DNA tested.
In May, it was a startling revelation in the courtroom when prosecutor Ryan Vecio said “there was some bedding that have potential biological, different material, some blood on them.”
Prosecutors in the Tronnes murder case made it known they had new evidence – bloody sheets taken from the home where Cooper-Tronnes had been found dead a year earlier.
“Certainly, it’s unusual that the defense would have this evidence in their possession and not have turned it over earlier,” said WFTV legal analyst Bill Sheaffer.
A private investigator working for the defense, Billy Lane, had been holding the bloody sheets for nearly a year without disclosing the evidence to police or prosecutors.
The sheets were sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for DNA testing.
Test results show blood stains on a top sheet have DNA from David Tronnes and an unknown man.
DNA from blood stains on the fitted sheet match both Tronnes and Cooper-Tronnes.
“Prosecutors are going to say, ‘Look, the DNA from the blood on the sheets indicates there was a struggle between the two on that bed,'” Sheaffer said.
Tronnes claimed he found his wife in the shower, but prosecutors said the evidence doesn’t show that.
Sheaffer believes the new DNA evidence backs up the prosecution’s theory that Tronnes killed Cooper-Tronnes on the bed, moved her body and tried to clean it up.
As for the unknown man’s DNA, Sheaffer said prosecutors will do everything they can to find out who it belongs to, to remove the defense argument that an unknown killer could have been in the house.
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