Overview
- Judge Andrew Poland sentenced Yvonne “Missy” Woods to 10 years in prison Tuesday after she pleaded guilty in June to cybercrime, perjury, forgery and attempting to influence a public servant.
- Prosecutors and investigators say Woods altered or deleted key numeric DNA measurements, reported no male DNA when male DNA was present, and at times re-tested samples until results matched her expectations.
- The Colorado Bureau of Investigation identified more than 1,000 cases linked to Woods’s work and estimated remediation costs at about $11 million as of December 2024.
- At least one murder conviction tied to her testing has been overturned and defense teams and prosecutors continue to reassess charges, plea deals and possible retrials in homicide, sexual assault and other cases.
- Concerns about Woods’s methods date to 2014 and led to a 2018 temporary removal and a probe launched after an intern’s 2018 discovery; the scandal prompted new state rules on reporting forensic misconduct and created a backlog of reviews that will affect victims, defendants and court budgets.