New Florida law will link suspects who avoided justice for decades to their crimes
BROOKSVILLE, Fla. - Andy Carrillo is 45, a sex offender, and now, thanks to his DNA, in prison for the rest of his life.
"He got angry with her, started arguing, smashed a beer bottle over her head, pulled over on the side of the road," said Hernando Co. Det. George Loydgren.
But he said Carrillo had never paid for what he did off Ponce de Leon north of Brooksville in July 2011.
That is, until he beat up his own dad in 2020. His DNA was taken upon arrest.
Pictured: Andy Carrillo
The national DNA database dinged, because it matched what was found at the scene in Brooksville.
"It's definite, it's science," said Loydgren. "You can't exploit it. You can't twist it or turn it."
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A new state law says all inmates whose DNA has not been taken must do so by the end of September.
The Department of Corrections says that will apply to 48 inmates who have still not provided samples, but who have likely been in prison for decades. It's likely they were in custody before current requirements went into effect in the early 2010s.
"This is paramount to crime fighting in America, in the United States, because not only is this DNA sample going to go into the Florida database, also go into the national FBI DNA database."
That means that if any of those inmates committed crimes elsewhere before going into Florida prisons, they could be fingered for those as well.
Project Cold Case says Florida has 20,000 cold cases, and now, there will be a little more DNA to comb through.
"They're never going to have their loved one back or have what they had before, but at least that kind of completes things for them," said Loydgren. "And know, the person responsible is going to prison and has to answer for what they did."
Andy Carrillo has already been sentenced to life in prison for the sex assault charge in Brooksville, but Loydgren says he could face another conviction on a case in Tampa that has now been linked through his DNA.
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