Old-fashioned police work combined with 21st century technology to help identify a man wanted in connection with a 21-year-old murder.
Jay Allen Hovel is in the Escambia County Jail awaiting extradition to West Palm Beach in connection with the killing of an 87-year-old woman. Hovel, 48, was arrested early Wednesday at the Wal-Mart on Mobile Highway after store employees detained him for trespassing and suspicion of shoplifting.
But it was Hovel's extensive criminal record — including a state prison sentence for burglary — that helped West Palm Beach authorities link him to the murder.
On April 21, 1987, Leila Langford, was found by her nephew in her home. Investigators believe she was killed during a break-in, West Palm Beach homicide detective Don Iman said. Iman would not release details of the death.
"At that time, crime-scene investigators collected whatever evidence they could, and a lot of what was collected was important to the case," Iman said. Since June 2006 he has been investigating more than 200 unsolved murders since the early 1980s.
A sample of DNA that was collected from evidence at the time of Langford's death was cross-checked against a national database of samples from convicted violent criminals, including Hovel, Iman said.
"(Hovel) has been arrested more than 50 times since 1980 by 13 law enforcement agencies from Jacksonville to Fort Lauderdale," Iman said, describing Hovel as a career criminal. "He was arrested for burglary, robbery, firearm possession, cocaine possession and auto theft."
The DNA test results connecting Hovel to Langford's murder were completed Nov. 25, more than a year after Iman reopened the case.
A warrant was issued for Hovel's arrest, and law enforcement agencies across the state were notified. Escambia deputies discovered the warrant after taking him into custody at Wal-Mart.
Hovel is being held without bond at the Escambia County Jail. On Dec. 18, a West Palm Beach grand jury is scheduled to consider charges of first-degree murder.
Current technology is making it tougher for criminals to avoid arrest.
"Guys like Hovel need to remember that just because a case is 21 years old, doesn't mean we've stopped working on it," Iman said.
