Topeka ? The director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation apologized Wednesday for the agency’s handling of a piece of evidence 12 years ago involving a man who now faces several counts of murder.

In a statement, Larry Welch said the apparent mismarking of a blood sample belonging to Douglas S. Belt in October 1991 might have contributed to a “significant delay” in identifying Belt as a suspect in several sexual crimes.

As a result, Welch said in the statement, the investigation moved away from Belt. He called the mistake “simply a case of human error. Even the best people aren’t perfect.”

He added, “The even more terrible consequences are the later, additional crimes Mr. Belt has been charged with committing.” Welch has scheduled a Thursday news conference in Topeka to discuss the issue.

Belt, 42, of Wichita, is being held in the Sedgwick County Jail on a charge of first-degree murder in the June 2002 killing and decapitation of Lucille Gallegos, 43, at the apartment complex where she worked as a maid.

Months after his arrest last November, Belt was charged with seven rapes that took place between 1989 and 1994 in four Kansas counties.

Belt also was charged Dec. 20 in Madison County, Ill., with three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault stemming from a Nov. 22, 1992, attack on a 21-year-old mother of two near Granite City, Ill.

Before Wednesday’s announcement and apology, KBI spokesman Kyle Smith said a DNA sample from Belt received Jan. 17, 2002, had not been processed. That sample arrived at the KBI lab five months before Gallegos’ death.

Belt was on probation at the time for a 1990 burglary. As a convicted felon, he was required by state law to provide fingerprints, blood and saliva samples. Smith said Belt’s was one of nearly 30,000 samples received by the KBI.

According to the Department of Corrections, Belt had been convicted three times between October 1995 and March 1999.