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Wednesday, Oct. 01, 2008

Burglar leaves part of thumb behind at Macon crime scene

Normally police collect fingerprints left behind at a crime scene. Last week a burglar left behind a little more.

Macon police say a burglar left a piece of his bloody thumb after breaking a window at the Farmers Home Furniture on Mercer University Boulevard.

An officer responded to an alarm at the furniture store about 5:30 a.m. Thursday and found the front window broken, according to a police report. A small bag with crack cocaine residue was found near the spotwhere a flat screen TV was taken.

While dusting for fingerprints, police Officer Antonio Harris noticed a piece of human flesh and blood among the shards of broken glass, according to the report.

The flesh, later determined to be a human finger pad with identifiable ridges still intact, was taken to the Macon Police Department crime lab for further analysis, according to a police news release.

At the crime lab, police Sgt. Steve Gatlin said he rolled the surface of the piece of flesh in ink after attaching the flesh to his gloved finger. Gatlin then rolled the inked piece of finger onto paper.

"I could roll it back and forth and get a good print," he said.

Angel Musselman, a crime lab fingerprint coordinator, then compared the fingerprint to a database of fingerprints of people arrested in Georgia, Gatlin said.

Musselman found the fingerprint matched the right thumbprint of 37-year-old Lorenzo Floyd of Kitchens Street in Macon, according to the news release and Bibb County jail records.
Police Sgt. Keith Woodford said he obtained an arrest warrant for Floyd.

"As soon as (Floyd) came to the door, I saw his thumb was bandaged," Woodford said.

Gatlin said he also took a DNA sample from the finger for possible future testing and has preserved the piece of finger in a formaldehyde solution.

The burglary is the first time in at least 20 years a suspect in Macon has left behind a piece of a finger at a crime scene that officers were able to use to obtain a fingerprint, police said.

Floyd is charged with burglary and violation of probation, according to jail records. He is being held at the Bibb County jail without bond.

Floyd has been in and out of jail several times during the past 18 years on charges ranging from loitering and obstruction to family violence and aggravated battery, said Lt. George Meadows, Bibb County sheriff's spokesman.

Woodford said the TV stolen from Farmers Home Furniture has not been recovered.

To contact writer Amy Leigh Womack, call 744-4398.