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King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office
King County Courthouse, Room W554
516 Third Avenue
Seattle, WA 98104-2362
(206) 296-9000

 
Sept. 10, 2009

First Degree Murder

Another "Cold Case" Charged

Justice is a concept that never grows old, even 25 years after the crime.  On August 25, the PAO's homicide unit charged defendant Daryl Spencer Hart with First Degree Murder for the 1984 stabbing death of his  70-year-old neighbor, Nora Gracey.  At the time of the murder, police were unable to link Hart to Gracey's death even though DNA evidence had been left at the crime scene.  In 2007, Seattle Police Department (SPD) detectives reopened this "cold case" and submitted to the crime lab for testing a DNA sample from Hart along with the DNA left at the 1984 crime scene.   New advances in DNA testing revealed that Hart's DNA matched the DNA left at the crime scene.   The odds of someone else having Hart's same DNA profile are1 in 34 quintillion.  The PAO could not have filed charges against the suspect in this case without the dedicated work of SPD Detective Michael Ciesynski.

This case is one of 16 "cold cases" that have been solved and charged since 2006, as part of the PAO's formation of a "Cold Case" Unit and its partnership with detectives throughout King County. The PAO effort is led by Senior DPA's Kristen Richardson and Carla Carlstrom.  Some examples of recently solved "cold cases" include:

  • State v. Frampton:  Defendant Morris Frampton pleaded guilty to Second Degree Murder for killing a Seattle woman in 1976.  He has been sentenced to 17 years to life in prison.

  • State v. Williams:  Defendant Clarence Williams pleaded guilty to First Degree Murder for the 1978 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl from Ballard.  He has been sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.

  • State v. Lui:  Defendant Sione Lui was convicted of Second Degree Murder for the 2001 strangulation death of his fiancée.  He has been sentenced to 16 ½ years in prison.

  • State v. Groth:  Defendant James Groth was convicted of Second Degree Murder for the 1975 stabbing death of a 16-year-old girl.  He has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

  • State v. Martin:  Defendant Karen Martin pleaded guilty to Second Degree Murder for killing a man in 1978 in exchange for $10,000.  She has been sentenced to 20 years to life in prison.

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