<\/p>\n
Twenty-four years after<\/span> he provided crucial testimony that helped send a man to Texas\u2019s death row, DNA expert William Watson has recanted his opinion and called out Harris County prosecutors \u2014 including an assistant district attorney turned true-crime TV star \u2014 for distorting his conclusions to win a conviction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n In a new court filing<\/a> seeking to overturn Jeffrey Prible\u2019s 2002 conviction for the murder of a Houston family, Watson said he would never give the same testimony today. \u201cBased on \u2026 changes in the field and my own increased experience and scientific knowledge, if I were asked to testify today, my answers to many of the questions asked by the State at trial would be different,\u201d he wrote in a declaration<\/a> filed on August 28. \u201cToday I would provide more thorough and nuanced explanations.\u201d<\/p>\n Watson also wrote that prosecutors \u201cmisrepresented\u201d his testimony in both their opening and closing statements, and made \u201cinflammatory\u201d remarks that twisted both the science and his opinions.<\/p>\n Prible was accused of murdering his friends Steve Herrera and Nilda Tirado, who were found shot to death at their home in North Houston in 1999. A fire was started in an apparent attempt to cover up the crime; the couple\u2019s three young children died from smoke inhalation. Prible had been hanging out at the couple\u2019s home in the hours before they were killed, which made him an early suspect. But there was no evidence linking him to the scene \u2014 save for a DNA sample taken from semen collected from Tirado\u2019s mouth. Prible had an explanation for this; as he told investigators at the time, he and Tirado had been having an affair behind Herrera\u2019s back, and she had performed oral sex on him earlier that evening.<\/p>\n The case went cold until Harris County Assistant District Attorney Kelly Siegler took it over, reexamining the evidence and concluding that there was no innocent explanation for the presence of Prible\u2019s DNA. Instead, Siegler decided, the semen was evidence of a brutal sexual assault that took place just seconds before Tirado was shot in the back of the head.<\/p>\n The theory was central to Prible\u2019s conviction. \u201cI would suggest to you what the evidence indicates is that the Defendant after killing Steve forced Nilda to orally copulate him at gunpoint and executed her as soon as he finished,\u201d Siegler\u2019s co-counsel, Vic Wisner, told the jury during the state\u2019s closing argument. \u201cAs horrific as that sounds, that is the only logical conclusion that you can draw from that evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n Siegler reiterated the claim to maximum effect: \u201cShe left this world with his penis in her mouth,\u201d she told jurors in her closing, \u201choping to God that her babies would survive the nightmare that is Jeff Prible.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prible was convicted and sentenced to death in October 2002; he maintains his innocence<\/a>.<\/p>\n