BY STEVE HARRISON AND WANDA DEMARZO
sharrison@herald.com

THE SIX IN QUESTION

Sheriff Ken Jenne has requested that DNA tests be performed on six Death Row inmates whose cases were investigated by the Broward Sheriff's Office: Robert Consalvo, 38. Sentenced Nov. 17, 1993, for stabbing to death Lorraine Pezza, 42, of Coconut Creek. Lancelot Armstrong, 37. Sentenced June 20, 1991, for the shooting death of Broward Sheriff's deputy Jack W. Greeney III during an armed robbery of a Church's Chicken restaurant. Dwayne Parker, 40. Sentenced June 14, 1990, for the shooting death William Nicholson, a bystander, during a police chase following a Pizza Hut robbery. Lawrence Lewis, 39. Sentenced Sept. 27, 1988, for beating to death Michael Gordon, 30, of Hollywood with a tire iron after an armed robbery. Michael Rivera, 38. Sentenced May 1, 1987, for the kidnapping and asphyxiation death of Staci Jazvac, 11, of Lauderdale Lakes. Lloyd Duest, 49. Sentenced April 14, 1983, in the stabbing death of James E. Pope, 64, of Fort Lauderdale.

FIVE WOMEN'S CASES

Here's a list of murder cases that Jenne has asked to be reopened using DNA technology. June 29, 1973 -- Thelma Bell, 20, found raped and stabbed to death in a Broward canal. July 20, 1973 -- Naomi Gamble, 15, found raped and strangled on Northwest 15th Ct. Aug. 26, 1973 -- Barbara Brown, 21, was found raped and strangled at 2501 NW Eighth Pl. July 6, 1979 -- Ernestine German, 22, was found in a vacant field south of Sunrise Boulevard, off Northwest 22nd Road. Her body was badly decomposed. Aug. 7, 1979 -- Terry Cummings, 20, was found raped and strangled in a burned out building near Sunrise Boulevard and 27th Avenue. Herald Researcher Scott Hutchinson contributed to this report.

Broward Sheriff Ken Jenne has ordered DNA testing for six of Broward's Death Row inmates, a decision that comes as BSO's homicide unit is under fire for the wrongful conviction of Frank Lee Smith, who died in prison in January before being exonerated by DNA evidence.

Jenne said Monday he ordered the tests because DNA testing is a safeguard, not because there are any doubts about the guilt of the men. There is no physical evidence for DNA testing on three of BSO's nine Death Row cases.

Gov. Jeb Bush has said he supports allowing DNA testing for convicted killers, but Broward has been under a harsh spotlight.

At the request of Broward State Attorney Michael Satz, Bush has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate whether former lead homicide investigator Richard Scheff lied under oath in the Smith case.

BSO spokeswoman Cheryl Stopnick said Scheff was involved on the ``periphery'' of two of the nine current Death Row cases, but didn't know which ones. Todd Scher, of Capital Collateral Representative, a group of public defenders assigned to capital murder trials and representing seven of the nine Death Row cases, said Scher worked on several of the cases, including Lancelot Armstrong and Michael Rivera.

Jenne said his decision was not related to the Scheff case.

Said Jenne: ``I support the use of DNA testing in every case where DNA is available.''

A woman who answered the phone at Scheff's house Monday night said he wasn't home.

``It's a step in the right direction and shows a recognition that there is a problem,'' said Marty McClain, a Death Row attorney representing Rivera. ``But is this going to cure the problem? No, because in some of these cases there is no DNA evidence. They need to look at all the evidence that was presented.''

Stopnick said DNA testing could be extended to other cases in the future.

Jenne also reopened Monday five brutal rape and murder cases from the 1970s, and will try to use DNA testing to determine if the right man was convicted. Fort Lauderdale Detective John Curcio has doggedly pursued the murder cases because he believes BSO got the wrong man.

Scheff was not involved in any of the 1970s murder cases that are being reopened.

The cases reopened Monday shocked Northwest Broward in 1973 and 1979. Retarded laborer Jerry F. Townsend went to jail for three of the murders in 1980, but BSO investigators thought he killed the other two women.

Now they believe Eddie Lee Mosley may be the killer. Mosley, one of the state's most notorious sex killers, lived in the neighborhood and was a suspect in the murders before Townsend was arrested and confessed.

Last year, in an unrelated case, preliminary DNA testing showed that Mosley raped and killed 8-year-old Shandra Whitehead in 1985 -- not Smith. Smith spent 14 years on Death Row and died in prison before being cleared.

The first wave of murders began in the summer of 1973.

On June 29, 20-year-old Thelma Bell, a prostitute, was found stabbed to death in a Broward canal. On July 20th, 15-year-old Naomi Gamble was found strangled on Northwest 15th Court. A month later, Barbara Brown, a 21-year-old heroin addict, was found strangled at 2501 NW Eighth Pl. by a 9-year-old boy on his way to the grocery store.

The murders were unsolved -- until 1979.

That year, there was another rash of killings. Four women and girls -- Terry Cummings, 21, Ernestine German, 23, Sonja Yvette Marion, 13, and Cathy Moore, 24 -- were found in or near Northwest Fort Lauderdale.

In 1979, Townsend was arrested in Miami for attempting to kill a prostitute. Miami police called BSO and Fort Lauderdale police, and Townsend confessed to five of the killings -- Bell, Gamble, Brown, Cummings and German.

He also confessed to killing Marion, though DNA evidence would later point to Mosley as the killer.

In Townsend's 1980 trial, police admitted they didn't perform routine testing on some of the victims' clothing. Witnesses testified that Gamble was last seen with a man who didn't resemble Townsend, and Townsend's uncle said Townsend was in Chicago during the summer and fall of 1973. Townsend's time card for his job at Hollywood Ford also showed he was working when Cummings was killed.

Townsend was convicted of murdering Gamble and Brown and was acquitted of killing Bell. He pleaded guilty to killing Cummings and wasn't charged with killing German.

``We said at the time of Townsend's confession that we had some serious misgivings about his guilt,'' said Detective Mike Reed, Fort Lauderdale police spokesman. ``But we couldn't get anyone to listen to us. Our detectives have been working and asking for DNA testing for several years.''

Townsend is serving a life sentence at Polk County Correctional Institution. If cleared in the Broward killings, he would still have to serve a life sentence for two convictions in Miami-Dade.

Mosley is living in a high-security mental hospital outside Gainesville. He was arrested in 1973 for rape and was sent to a state mental hospital.

He was found not guilty by reason of insanity, and was released in 1979 because his doctors felt he was making progress.