Eugene Kane | In My Opinion Ex-inmate's story of serial killer is no longer farfetched May 20, 2009 Last month, this guy called to accuse the Milwaukee Police Department of covering up evidence about a serial killer in Milwaukee who was preying on black women. Frankly, I didn't take him very seriously. What a difference a month can make. His name is Chaunte Ott, a Milwaukee man released after serving 13 years of a life term in prison for the murder of a teenage runaway, Jessica Payne. Ott, 35, was released in January after the discovery of identical DNA evidence on Payne and two other slaying victims with whom he had no connection. The Milwaukee County district attorney's office decided not to oppose Ott's release. But it was clear that prosecutors and police who had worked on the case did not immediately accept the notion that an innocent man had been cleared due to DNA evidence. In April, Ott called me to talk about his case and proclaim his innocence. At the time, he didn't seem bitter over his circumstances as much as he seemed concerned about what he felt was reluctance by police to find a serial killer. Those were his exact words back then: a serial killer. "Someone's out there killing women," he told me. "It's like the cops don't care." At the time, Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams said Ott's release was "the right thing to do," given the DNA evidence. Williams recently said he would make the decision whether to retry Ott sometime in the next few weeks. During our brief conversation, Ott seemed to realize he wasn't totally off the hook for Payne's murder. He kept insisting police should be out looking at other suspects and suggested the longer cops spent investigating him, the more likely it was that additional murders would follow. When news broke this week that Milwaukee police were indeed convinced a serial killer who preyed on street prostitutes had been operating for years, it struck a nerve. I initially didn't write a column about my conversation with Ott, but I did talk with police sources who warned me of the man's claims of innocence. The official stance was that many of the people who investigated the case were still convinced Ott was responsible for Payne's death. There was also speculation that the serial killer who left DNA at the scene of the murders of six other women - all African-Americans - may have had sex with Payne but probably didn't kill her. Payne is the only white victim identified so far. I tried to reach Ott Wednesday to no avail. I suspect he would cite the latest developments as more proof of his innocence. But who really knows? Bold new technology apparently has the ability to prove a suspect's presence at a crime scene by way of DNA evidence, but that's just one factor to be considered to determine whether someone is truly innocent or guilty. We are still miles away from a sci-fi future where all criminal investigations will be considered open-and-shut cases due to the ability of investigators to determine exactly what happened by DNA samples alone. Milwaukee police are convinced that science is telling them a serial killer has been preying on women for years. Let's hope science is enough for justice to prevail. Contact Eugene Kane at (414) 223-5521 or ekane@journalsentinel.com.

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