Overview
- Bell, 54, pleaded not guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to first-degree murder in the 1999 death of Caryn Bonner.
- Prosecutors say his CODIS profile matched DNA on a cigarette butt from Bonner’s apartment, and a bloody latent fingerprint photo was individualized to him.
- Investigators identified Bell after his DNA was uploaded following his 2022 conviction in a separate Norfolk County murder.
- He is already serving life without parole for the 2017 killing of Michelle Clarke, having been arrested in 2019 near Miami after two years on the run.
- Defense attorney Joseph Simmons objected to a motion seeking a new DNA sample and said he will retain a fingerprint expert, as the DA highlights a wider push that recently produced charges in the 1997 Ruth Foster case.