A Sacramento jury handed down a death penalty verdict for convicted killer Richard Hirschfield last week.

The jury foreman said it was the concrete DNA evidence that proved Hirschfield’s guilt in the murder of two UC Davis students 32 years ago.

CSLEA member and Department of Justice (DOJ) criminalist Steven Myers testified in the trial last October.  He told the jury Hirschfield’s DNA profile was a one-in-240 trillion match to body fluid connected to the murders of John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves back in December 1980.

Hirschfield was identified as a suspect through a cold hit at California DOJ’s DNA databank 22 years after the crimes took place.  

“I think the most important thing here is that the people of the state of California received the justice they are entitled to with that verdict,” said Association of Criminalists – Department of Justice (AC-DOJ) President John Miller.   “Most especially all those California citizens who were directly affected by these terrible crimes.”

A judge is expected to sentence Hirschfield on January 25.