A San Francisco jury took no more than two hours to decide 56-year-old Lance Ford was guilty of raping and strangling a San Francisco woman more than two decades ago.
It was DNA evidence that linked Ford to the murder of 24-year-old Parkmerced resident Annie Barcelon, whose body was found in the basement of her apartment on Nov. 27, 1981, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Barcelon's roommate had called security when she didn't return from parking her car after a party. However, police had no real leads, and it quickly became a cold case. Then in 2004, cold-hit DNA identified Ford as the suspect, however, the backlog of murder cases in San Francisco hindered prosecutors from taking him to trial until now.
The practice of taking DNA samples from convicted felons and keeping them in the state's database is a hotly debated topic. The American Civil Liberties Union recently went to court and argued against it, but that didn't do much to help Ford's case. He will be sentenced on Oct. 17.
"This defendant will spend the rest of his life in prison for the brutal rape and murder of Annie Barcelon," said District Attorney George Gascón.
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