Man Freed After 18 Years Due to DNA Testing

A man who served 18 years in prison after the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old McDonald’s manager will be freed because new DNA tests found he didn’t commit the crime, officials announced Tuesday.

The restaurant manager, Noreen Malloy, was shot and killed outside her work in a small city near Pittsburgh. The police found hair from the killer’s mask and a bloodstained jacket, hat, and shoes near the crime scene. The blood on the shoes matched Whitley’s blood type.

In 1989, Drew Whitley, 50, was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder when a crime lab technician testified that the 41 hairs found in the mask were similar to Whitley’s hair. DNA testing was not available at the time of Whitley’s trial.

The hair evidence submitted in the trial was recently found in a storage room last year and submitted for DNA testing. Officials said the tests reveal that the hairs from the stocking mask definitely did not come from Whitley.

“I am thrilled with the results,” said defense attorney Scott Coffey. “I am thrilled he is going home.”

Whitley had always claimed he was innocent, Coffey said.