Editing Murder of Bob Crane (section)

== Trial and Acquittal of John Henry Carpenter ==
At the time, The Scottsdale Police Department had no homicide division, so it was ill-equipped to handle such a high-profile murder investigation. The crime scene yielded only a few clues; no evidence was found of forced entry, and nothing of value was missing, so burglary was ruled out. Detectives examined Crane's extensive videotape collection, which led them to Carpenter, who had flown to Phoenix on June 25 prior to the murder to spend a few days with Crane. Carpenter flew there for a four-day business trip for Akai Corporation, who he now worked for as a sales manager. Carpenter's rental car was subsequently impounded and searched. Several blood smears were found that matched Crane's blood type; no one else of that blood type was known to have been in the car, including Carpenter. DNA testing was not yet available, and as of a result, the Maricopa County Attorney declined to file charges.

In 1990, Scottsdale Police Detective Barry Vassall and Maricopa County Attorney's Office Investigator Jim Raines re-examined the murder evidence from 1978 and persuaded the county attorney to reopen the case. DNA testing was inconclusive on the blood found in Carpenter's rental car, but Raines did discover an evidence photograph of the car's interior that appeared to show a piece of brain tissue. By the time the case was reopened, the actual tissue samples recovered from the car had been lost, but an Arizona judge ruled that the new evidence was admissible. In June 1992, Carpenter was arrested and charged with Crane's murder.

John Henry Carpenter's trial began on September 12, 1994. At the trial, one of Crane's sons, Robert, testified that in the weeks before his father's death, Crane had repeatedly expressed a desire to sever his friendship with Carpenter. He said that Carpenter had become "a hanger-on" and "a nuisance to the point of being obnoxious". Crane expressed to his son Robert that he didn't need Carpenter hanging around him anymore. According to Robert, his dad called Carpenter the night before the murder occurred and ended their friendship.

Carpenter's attorneys aggressively attacked the prosecution's case as circumstantial and inconclusive. They presented evidence that Carpenter and Crane were still the best of friends, including witnesses from the restaurant where the two men had dined the evening before the murder. They noted that the murder weapon had never been identified nor found; the prosecution's camera tripod theory was sheer speculation, they said, based solely on Carpenter's occupation. They disputed the claim that the newly discovered evidence photo had showed brain tissue, and presented many examples of "sloppy work" by police, such as the mishandling and misplacing of evidence—including the crucial tissue sample itself. They also pointed out that Crane had been videotaped and photographed in sexual relations with numerous women, implying that any one of them might have been the killer. Other potential suspects proposed by defense attorneys included angry husbands and boyfriends of the women, and an unknown actor who had sworn vengeance after a violent argument with Crane in Texas several months earlier.

Carpenter was ultimately acquitted on October 31, 1994. As a result of the accusation that he had murdered Crane, he was fired from work as National Service Manager at the electronics firm Kenwood USA. He always maintained his innocence, and later said he felt a huge relief after his name had been cleared. One jury member later said in an interview that the jury believed there was insufficient proof to determine Carpenter's guilt and that "you cannot prove someone guilty on speculation." Carpenter's acquittal was spearheaded by defense attorney Dan Roth. The Law Offices of Roth and Roth were located in Scottsdale, Arizona. Carpenter's acquittal subsequently propelled Roth's reputation as one of Arizona's most sought-after defense attorneys.

In November 2016, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office permitted Phoenix television reporter John Hook to submit the 1978 blood samples from Carpenter's rental car for retesting, which used a more advanced DNA technique than the one used in 1990. Two sequences were identified, one from an unknown male, and the other too degraded (possibly Crane's) to reach a conclusion. This testing consumed all of the remaining DNA from the rental car, making further tests impossible.

Carpenter continued to maintain his innocence, until his death on September 4, 1998 from a Heart attack. Officially, Bob Crane's murder remains unsolved to this day.
[[Category:Mature]]
[[Category:Villainous Event]]
[[Category:Murderer]]
[[Category:Destroyer of Innocence]]
[[Category:Mutilators]]