Acting Oswego County Judge John J. Elliott has denied the prosecutor's request for a blood sample for DNA testing from murder suspect Matthew Maxson.

Maxson, 18, of High Street, Lockport, NY, is charged with two counts of murder in the second degree in the May 24th death of Fulton resident Diana Cooper who was found dead in her West Second Street apartment from stab wounds to her neck.

A co-worker reported to police that Maxson, who was seen selling magazines subscriptions for a Florida-based marketing firm in the area of Cooper's apartment earlier in the day, returned to the pick-up point that evening with blood on his sneakers and wearing a woman's sweater and not the shirt he wore to start the day. Police reportedly found Maxson's shirt in the victim's apartment and the sweater he was wearing was allegedly identified as belonging to the victim.

Oswego County Assistant District Attorney Donald Dodd submitted his second request for a blood speciment from the suspect to Judge Elliott last month. His first request was previously submitted to Judge Walter Hafner, Jr., who declined to hear Maxson's case proceedings after the defendant retained Emil Rossi as his defense attorney. Hafner's reasons for stepping down from the case included conflict issues because of his personal associations with Rossi

Judge Hafner had denied Dodd's request for a blood specimen from the suspect for the purposes of DNA testing. Dodd's first request was made while the defendant was still represented by local attorney Salvatore Lanza who was appointed as Maxson's defense attorney by the court. Dodd made some modifications to the request and resubmitted it in Judge Elliott's court room in August.

Rossi filed responses to the assistant district attorney's request with Judge Elliott on September 5. In a decision dated September 11, Judge Elliott denied the second request for a blood sample. He stated that the prosecution's request failed to establish three key points.

In the first point, Judge Elliott's decision said that the prosecution's request failed to indicate that the evidence collected at the scene included blood from anyone other than the victim. In the second point, the judge said that the prosecution failed to indicate the liklihood that the defendant's blood would be found at the scene. And in the third point the judge said that the assistant district attorney's statement that the method used to collect the blood specimen for testing would be safe and reliable was insufficient.

"We filed our answer to the people's request for a blood sample in a timely manner and we won," Rossi said Wednesday morning. "The judge denied the request."