People v. Collins

*597OPINION OF THE COURT

Mark Dwyer, J.

In these unrelated cases, defendants Collins and Peaks face violent felony charges. What the cases have in common is that the People applied to introduce DNA evidence at each defendant’s trial.

In defendant Collins’ case, the People obtained two DNA “mixtures,” each apparently from three contributors, from the handlebars of a bicycle ridden by the perpetrator of a shooting. The DNA samples were very small, and so they were tested with “high sensitivity” analysis in the laboratory of New York City’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). After that, a new…