
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 6, 1991                   TAG: 9103060393
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                LENGTH: Short

TESTIMONY COUNTERED IN ABDUCTION TRIAL

An FBI expert testifying for the defense said drops of blood found on a tissue in Caleb Hughes' car could not be that of a missing 5-year-old girl.

The testimony Tuesday contradicted the testimony of another FBI agent who had served as a key prosecution witness.

The testimony by Dwight Adams, a DNA analyst for the FBI, came just a day after the state rested its abduction case against Hughes, who is charged in the Dec. 3, 1989, disappearance of Melissa Brannen.

The girl was last seen at a Christmas party at her apartment complex.

Hughes, 25, of Woodbridge, could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Robert Grispino on Monday told jurors drops of blood on one of two yellow tissues "could have come" from Melissa. The tissues were found in a car Hughes was driving the night Melissa vanished.

by CNB