Hutchinson ? A Reno County judge has dismissed a rape case against a death-row inmate who was not connected to sexual assaults in several counties for more than a decade because investigators mislabeled a blood sample.

In dismissing the case Thursday, Reno County Judge Steven Becker said the warrant used to arrest and charge Douglas Belt with a 1994 rape was too vague, and the statute of limitations had expired.

Belt, 43, was sentenced to death a year ago for killing and beheading Wichita housekeeper Lucille Gallegos. He was linked to the decapitation killing after his DNA was found on a railing outside Gallegos’s blood-soaked apartment. Besides connecting Belt to Gallegos’ death, a new DNA sample taken from him after his arrest three years ago connected him to the string of rapes.

Belt narrowly escaped capture a decade before Gallegos’ killing when evidence from another suspect was mismarked as belonging to Belt, and nobody was charged with the rape.

With no suspects and the statute of limitations running out, a McPherson County prosecutor filed a “John Doe” warrant charging the DNA of the alleged attacker with the crime. Now commonplace, the McPherson County prosecutor is thought to be the first in the country to employ the approach.

John Doe warrants also were filed in Saline and Reno counties in the 1990s after DNA tests indicated the same person was responsible for all of the crimes.

In Reno County, Belt faced a single count of rape, two counts of aggravated criminal sodomy and one count of aggravated burglary for allegedly attacking a woman in her mobile home in August 1994.

But defense attorney Tim O’Keefe sought to have the charges dismissed, pointing out that the statute of limitations for rape is five years, while the other crimes fell under the two-year statute at the time of the offense. Charges weren’t brought specifically against Belt until March 2003.

A new law passed in Kansas this year extends the statute of limitations to five years for all crimes.

O’Keefe also argued that the warrant and complaint didn’t include anything to identify a particular person – such as race and physical characteristics – a requirement of state law to execute a warrant.

Douglas Belt smiled and thanked his attorney Thursday as Becker read the decision.

“He’s very excited; he’s got a lot of other things on his plate,” said O’Keefe, a Reno County public defender.

The Kansas Supreme Court struck down the death penalty in December 2004, and the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing whether the state’s death penalty is constitutional.

Special prosecutor Mark Bennett predicted the Kansas Court of Appeals would eventually take up the issue of John Doe warrants. Similar dismissal motions have been filed in rape cases from Saline and McPherson counties.

“People 10 years ago were trying to keep this case alive and they did the best they could with what they knew at the time, and if they didn’t do it the right way they got some measure of resolution for these women,” he said.