It’s good advice for husbands and cat burglars: don’t leave your sweaty towels on the floor.
It took a Manhattan jury just two hours today to convict Luis Torres, 52 — a veteran prowler who was caught in a string of burglaries because of DNA from a single discarded towel.
Torres had been a prolific thief — cops found his Queens apartment was crammed with jewelry, electronics, and more than 100 door keys and key cards. He now faces more than 15 years prison when he’s sentenced for today’s convictions by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon for one burglary each on Central Park North, East 70th Street and E. 58th Street.
It was the sweaty towel he left on the hallway floor at the Central Park North victim’s apartment that did Torres in, prosecutor Alex Spiro told jurors in closing statements earlier today. DNA from the towel matched the sample in the state database that Torres had once been required to submit in the course of his seven-felony-conviction career as a burglar.
Once they had Torres’ name, cops searched his home, uncovering the trove of stolen goods linking him to the other burglaries.
Jurors quickly dispatched with Torres’ claims that he’d only been the “fence” for the stolen goods — and that the keys were from his prior residences.
Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance — a proponent of all-crimes DNA data banking — credited the databank with finally putting Torres out of business.