Man wants another hearing on DNA evidence

Thursday, April 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

SAPULPA, Okla. (AP) -- Attorneys for a Sapulpa man who is a suspect in his mother's 1976 disappearance in New Mexico say he should not have had blood, hair and saliva samples taken from him.

In an appeal before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, attorneys for Roy Douglas Foote II, 50, are asking for another court hearing in Creek County before the samples taken by Sapulpa police are released.

Detectives in Santa Fe, N.M., have named Foote as a suspect in the murder of his mother, Donna.

He hasn't been charged and remains found beneath a rose bush at a New Mexico residence haven't been identified as those of Ms. Foote. New Mexico detectives want the DNA evidence from Foote in order to confirm the identity.

Foote's attorneys argue in their appeal that an affidavit prepared by the state attorney general's office is based on erroneous information provided by New Mexico authorities.

Attorney Allen Mitchell said Detective Mark Clayton's information doesn't identify the bones as those of a female and that there is no DNA evidence from the remains that could be compared to Foote's samples.

He said New Mexico authorities maneuvered around a 1997 ruling that probable cause didn't exist for a search warrant to collect samples from Foote.