State Crime Lab test shows Douglas Carter’s DNA isn’t on murder scene evidence, defense says

PROVO — The capital murder case of Douglas Stewart Carter is the kind of case Neal Hamilton learned about in law school but hoped he’d never see in his career.

“They stole 42 years from Doug,” he said, choking back apparent emotion. “And nobody is willing to do anything about it. That’s the frustration.”

Carter was convicted of aggravated murder and sentenced to die for killing 57-year-old Eva Olesen in 1985.

But a report from the Utah State Crime Lab didn’t find Carter’s DNA on any of the crime scene evidence it tested.

“This confirms what we’ve always known,” Hamilton said. “Douglas Carter is innocent.”

This revelation comes a year after the Utah Supreme Court affirmed Judge Derek Pullan’s 2023 ruling that Carter deserved a new trial because of misconduct by police and prosecutors that, according to court documents, included the lead detective threatening and paying key witnesses and then telling them to lie if asked about the payments in court. In July of last year, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray filed a motion to seek the death penalty again, despite the fact that Provo police admitted in 2018 that much of the physical evidence collected from the crime scene in 1985 had been “lost or destroyed.”

In fact, Hamilton and his co-counsel, Richard Gale, who were hired by Utah County in June of 2025, have filed six motions for discovery, hoping to get clarity on what physical evidence the government has. As they prepared for a scheduling conference on Friday, July 31, the state offered no information or explanation as to where the evidence was found and what it makes of the results.

In April of this year, Hamilton and Gale filed a motion to dismiss the aggravated murder charge against Carter based on the fact that prosecutors told them the physical evidence from the case left in the custody of Provo police had been lost or destroyed.

“We were scheduled for a hearing in June, based on destruction of evidence,” Hamilton said. And on the eve of that hearing, the state responded, saying not only hadn’t the evidence been destroyed, but 17 items from the crime scene were also being tested by the state crime lab.

“The state told us in February that all of the evidence we’d asked for was lost,” Hamilton said. “Then we found out that not only did the evidence exist, but it was being tested at the crime lab.”

Hamilton told the judge they could no longer argue their motion to dismiss based on the destruction of the evidence in light of this new information.

A few hours after that hearing, Hamilton got an email from prosecutors.

It was the report from the state crime lab.

They stole 42 years from Doug. And nobody is willing to do anything about it. That’s the frustration. –Attorney Neal Hamilton

Prosecutors had submitted 17 pieces of evidence for DNA testing. Only three pieces of evidence — a pillow used to muffle a gunshot, a bloody handprint left on the back doorframe of Olesen’s home and drops of blood found in the snow outside the door — provided a DNA profile that met the scientific standards required by the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which is maintained by the FBI. Carter’s DNA has been in the database since the 1990s.

Officials submitted the DNA taken from those three items to CODIS twice. No match was found.

Hamilton was stunned.

“Doug’s DNA is in CODIS,” he said. The fact that no match was found — twice — means his DNA isn’t on the evidence.

“The authenticity of this system was set in place in 1994,” said Melissa Anger, Carter’s daughter-in-law. “It is used a million times a day. So because the prosecution didn’t get the answer they wanted, we’re going to question its authenticity, and (they) want more DNA? This is mind-blowing to me. Honestly, it feels like we’re going insane. We do not understand why we are toying with a man’s life at this point.”

Carter is being held in the Utah County Jail without bail. Anger said they can’t visit him, and they have to pay for the county’s online video phone system just to talk with Carter.

“There has never been any physical evidence that has tied him to this case,” she said. “At this point, we’re feeling anger and sadness. You can’t help but think about the life that Doug has missed out on; all of these years we’ve been absolutely robbed of him.”

She can’t stop the tears when she thinks of how unfair it is that the criminal justice system moves so slowly; he may die behind bars for something he didn’t do.

“Doug wants to see his mother’s grave,” she said. “He wants the opportunity to touch grass. … He doesn’t even remember what his favorite food is.

“All the little things we take for granted, the things that are part of our everyday life, these are the things he wants. … He’s just a human being looking to enjoy however many years he has left.”

Hamilton said there are a lot of critical legal issues, but this new DNA evidence is monumental.

“It’s not an understatement to say that this evidence is vital,” he said. “We didn’t have a DNA expert because we were told there wasn’t any evidence to examine. … Now there is, so we had to scramble and find a DNA expert, which we have.”

She is based in California and will run her own tests on the evidence, and Hamilton said right now, there is no timeline or deadline for that to happen. There are a myriad of issues and questions that must be resolved, but as of Thursday, none of those have been addressed by the prosecution.

“Their options are (to) dismiss the case, respond and give us the information we’ve asked for, or object,” he said.

But at Friday’s scheduling conference, Hamilton said they were simply setting dates for an argument on a motion to suppress Carter’s confession and setting a date for a new trial.

Carter’s family doesn’t understand why they’d set a date for a new trial with all of the evidentiary issues in the case.

“It validated that Doug did not do this,” she said. “So why aren’t we dismissing the case?”

Other reading: Utah’s history of execution by firing squad