The former husband of beating victim Jill Marker has agreed to let a citizens committee test the paternity of Marker's son.
The Silk Plant Forest Citizen Review Committee had asked Aaron Marker, the ex-husband, for permission to do a DNA test on him and 12-year-old Barron Marker. Marker at first had said no.
The committee is checking the possibility that Kenneth Lamoureux, an early suspect in the beating, fathered the child, which could point to a possible motive for the attack.
Jill Marker was four months pregnant when she was beaten on Dec. 9, 1995, in the Silk Plant Forest, the store where she worked. She gave birth in a coma. The attack has left her with brain damage and injuries that require 24-hour care.
Kalvin Smith, who in 1997 was convicted of the attack, has maintained his innocence. In April, he asked for a new trial, contending that witnesses in the case have recanted.
The citizens committee, which is charged with investigating all aspects of the case, asked to check the paternity because the issue came up in an interview with Ellen Lamoureux, Kenneth Lamoureux's former wife, the committee chairman, Guy Blynn, said.
"We felt an obligation to answer the question, and so we asked for Aaron Marker's cooperation," Blynn said.
The paternity issue revisits an early part of the investigation into the attack, when Detective Don Williams was focusing on Kenneth Lamoureux as a suspect. In late December 1995, Williams filed an affidavit to get Lamoureux's phone records.
His affidavit said that Ellen Lamoureux was a friend of Jill Marker's, and that Marker's contact with Kenneth Lamoureux caused conflict in the Lamoureux marriage.
Where Williams got that information is unclear.
In October, detectives assigned to the review committee interviewed Ellen Lamoureux. She told them that Williams had told her that Marker was pregnant, and that he also told her that Marker and Kenneth Lamoureux were having a relationship.
Williams told her that he couldn't say what kind of relationship Lamoureux and Marker had, but he mentioned that they were seen in church together, Ellen Lamoureux recounted in her interview with the investigators for the committee.
Ellen Lamoureux said she told Williams that she didn't know Marker; Marker had worked at the day-care center where the Lamoureux children attended.
In the interview, Ellen Lamoureux described her husband as abusive, and said that he had stalked her and other women who caught his eye. She told detectives that it would be no surprise to her if he had been in a relationship with Marker.
She said she had told Williams of her suspicion that Kenneth Lamoureux had fathered Marker's child, but that conversation is not documented in any of Williams' reports. In 1997, before Smith's trial, Ellen Lamoureux also told a detective for Smith's defense that she believed that her husband was the child's father.
Williams is being subpoenaed by the city council to answer the citizens committee's questions about his work on the case. Ellen Lamoureux referred questions about her interview to her attorney, Melissa Averett, who has not returned phone calls in recent weeks.
In a phone interview Monday night, Aaron Marker said he at first had refused the paternity request in part to protect his son.
He said he changed his mind after reading about the citizen-review committee and watching city council meetings about the committee's duties.
"I didn't realize that it was as big a deal as it is," he said. "I just want to do whatever I can to put it to rest."
Marker said he also was surprised to find that questions about Williams' work had been raised by the Winston-Salem Journal and the Innocence Project at Duke University Law School.
"He was very thorough," Marker said of Williams. "He cared a lot about Jill, and he wanted to do the right thing."
Jill Marker's parents have said that they know Marker did not have a relationship with Lamoureux, but that they support doing a DNA comparison to try to put the issue to rest.
Blynn said at a committee meeting Monday that he will call Aaron Marker early next month to arrange the paternity test.
Marker has offered to come to Winston-Salem for the test, but it might be arranged in Ohio, where he and Barron live.
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.
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