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Prosecutors Lose Key Blood Sample in Gigi Jordan Murder Case

By DNAinfo Staff on August 1, 2011 9:01pm

Alleged murderer Gigi Jordan, 50, at a recent court appearance in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Alleged murderer Gigi Jordan, 50, at a recent court appearance in Manhattan Supreme Court.
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DNAinfo/John Marshall Mantel

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — The only blood sample taken from Gigi Jordan the day she allegedly murdered her child before trying to kill herself with a drug overdose has gone missing, prosecutors informed her lawyers in a letter last week.

The sample, one millimeter of Jordan's blood in a vial taken Feb. 5, 2010 during her treatment at Bellevue Hospital, had been held by the hospital pending her trial, prosecutors said in the letter sent to Jordan's attorneys on Friday.

"It has come to our attention that Ms. Jordan’s blood, which had been continuously stored at Bellevue Hospital, cannot be found," Assistant District Attorney Kerry O'Connell wrote in the letter.

Prosecutors said the sample went missing because of a series of delays caused by Jordan's replacement of various lawyers.

Jordan, a wealthy former pharmaceutical executive, allegedly forced an overdose on her 8-year-old autistic son, then pretended to try to drug herself to death, prosecutors say. They say she was aware of the number of pills it would have taken to kill herself and took took less than the required amount.

But Jordan's attorney, Ronald Kuby, blasted prosecutors for misplacing a key piece of evidence that was the only scientific way to prove whether Jordan, 50, had real intentions of committing suicide.

"There has been a series of disastrous episodes of misconduct with respect to this blood sample," Kuby said. 

They also should have gotten a court order to take a sample of blood from Jordan that night to be used specifically for testing in her criminal trial, but because they failed to do so, all that was left was a residual amount of blood left from her medical treatment, he said.

Prosecutors said they did not have a vial of blood drawn for the criminal case because there was no basis for a court order at the time.

Kuby said he and the rest of Jordan's legal team plan to make an issue of the missing piece of evidence if the case goes to trial.

"Certainly we would seek to show the jury the sloppy way this evidence was dealt with and the various lies told by the prosecution with respect to it," Kuby said.

Jordan is accused of killing her son, Jude Michael Mirra, at the Peninsula Hotel last year. She penned letters prior to the incident expressing her fears that she was being targeted for death and that the boy would face a life of abuse and torture at her ex-husband's hands.

Her lawyers have suggested they will argue a psychiatric defense when the case goes to trial.

Jordan is due back in court Aug. 11.