Topeka ? New equipment in the Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab in Topeka will help prevent mistakes like one that led to the 1991 release of a rape suspect who was later charged with murder, state officials said Tuesday.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline and KBI officials showed off a new DNA-extraction machine as they announced that the agency’s four labs have received national reaccreditation.

A board of the American Society of Crime Laboratory Directors audited the labs 18 times before it recertified them, Kline said. The labs are in Topeka, Great Bend, Pittsburg and Kansas City.

Kline ordered an audit of KBI procedures last summer after learning that a blood sample from rape suspect Douglas S. Belt had been mislabeled in 1991. Other audits were conducted as part of the reaccreditation process, which occurs every five years.

The lab error was discovered in December 2002 when a new DNA sample was taken from Belt after he was charged with first-degree murder in the killing of 43-year-old Lucille Gallegos of Wichita.

Gallegos’ decapitated body was found in June 2002 at an apartment complex where she worked. Belt, a Wichita truck driver, is being held in the Sedgwick County jail on the murder charge, as well as on charges in several Kansas rapes and a sexual assault in Illinois.

KBI Director Larry Welch, who last June announced the mistake, apologized again Tuesday for the error.

“The bottom line was, and is, that our mistake in 1991 may have contributed to a situation which permitted a prime suspect to remain free and to continue criminal activity,” Welch said.

The new, $94,000 DNA extraction equipment will speed the process of analyzing and documenting DNA evidence, officials said. It also will eliminate the need for the state to send about 10,000 blood samples a year to labs outside of the state for processing.

Blood samples are taken from all convicted Kansas felons for DNA analysis and cataloging.