Rape suspect whose blood mislabeled to go on trial

? A man who went unconnected to several rapes for more than a decade because investigators mislabeled a blood sample in one of them goes on trial next week in the attempted rape and decapitation murder of a Wichita woman.

Douglas Belt, 42, a Wichita truck driver who formerly lived in McPherson, could face the death penalty if convicted in Sedgwick County District Court for the death in June 2002 of Lucille Gallegos, 43. He is charged with capital murder and attempted rape, as well as aggravated arson for allegedly setting fire to the Wichita apartment complex where the victim worked as a maid.

Jury selection is slated to begin Tuesday in Wichita, with opening statements and testimony starting Oct. 18. Kevin O’Connor, deputy district attorney for Sedgwick County, said the trial could run four or five weeks.

Belt also is accused of seven counts of rape in four Kansas counties and three counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault in Madison County, Ill.

Last year, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation admitted an error involving a blood sample taken after a 1991 rape. Evidence from another suspect was mismarked as belonging to Belt, and nobody was charged with the rape.

The mistake was discovered when a new DNA sample taken from Belt after his arrest in 2002 matched the blood evidence from the 1991 rape as well as evidence in other rapes. The error at the KBI lab in Great Bend prompted a public apology from KBI Director Larry Welch.

“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 in apologizing again earlier this year.

Even if he’s convicted in the Sedgwick County case and sentenced to die, Belt still could face further trials on the rape and sexual assault charges in Saline, McPherson, Reno and Thomas counties, between 1989 and 1994. The Illinois case involves an incident in 1992.

“We intend to proceed with our charges,” said Ellen Mitchell, the attorney for Saline County, where Belt is accused of two rapes in 1993. “We just need to wait until it’s our turn.”

Mitchell said the rape charges would be pursued as a precaution in case a successful appeal of a possible conviction in Sedgwick County could set Belt free.

Regardless, some of the victims from those incidents could appear at Belt’s murder trial. Judge Rebecca Pilshaw ruled that prosecutors will be allowed to use evidence from the rape cases to demonstrate a pattern of behavior by the defendant.

— The Salina Journal contributed information for this story.