By Pat Culverhouse

A 30-year-old cold case could be heating up thanks to technical innovations in DNA extraction, and a pair of Minden lawmen left early Tuesday for south Louisiana with evidence they hope will finally flush out a killer or killers.

MPD Lt. Shane Griffith, head of the department’s Violent Crimes Division, and Ward 1 Marshal Danny Weaver are heading to the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office in Lacombe with clothing from the victim of the 1996 homicide. Lacombe is located on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain between Mandeville and Slidell.

Griffith and Weaver will deliver garments worn by 66-year-old J.B. Robinson, the murder victim who was gunned down in the yard of his Gum St. residence during an apparent robbery. At the St. Tammany facility, a technique (MVAC) will be used to extract and separate DNA strains from the clothing.

Griffith first learned of the technique when he attended the annual conference of the Louisiana Homicide Investigators Association. Griffith currently serves as vice president of the organization.

“I heard a DA from south Louisiana present information on a case where they collected DNA from clothing,” Griffith said. “It is called touch-DNA, trace skin cells left by handling, and it separates the different strains for identification of any individual who came in contact with the garment.”

Griffith said he immediately thought of the Robinson case.

“When Mr. Robinson was first interviewed at the Minden hospital by former Chief T.C. Bloxom, Jr. immediately after the shooting, he said he had struggled with his assailant or assailants,” he said. “That means they came in contact with his garments. If we collect the strains, we’ll go through the crime bases to see if there’s a match.”

Robinson died of the gunshot wound to his neck while he was being transported to a Shreveport hospital.

Weaver said the Robinson case is the only unsolved murder of his nearly 30-year career as a police officer and criminal investigator. That’s why he wanted to be involved in this newest stage of the investigation. He talked with Chief Jared McIver and Griffith, and both agreed the now-Ward Marshal should be on board.

“This case has haunted me for 25 years…I am obsessed with finding the people who did this,” Weaver said. “From 1996, when I was the only detective in the department, until I retired in 2019, people I arrested would ask what they could do to help themselves. They all knew I was going to ask the question ‘Who killed J.B. Robinson,’ but I never developed any substantial leads.”

St. Tammany’s coroner’s office is the only facility in the region that currently has the technology to extract touch-DNA. And it’s an expensive process.

“Cost of running this DNA is $3,750 per garment. Dan and I put our heads together with Chief McIver and he came up with the money from the city for the first garment,” Griffith said.

If more garments need to be tested, money apparently will be available from another source, the two officers said.

“I talked with Schuyler Marvin, our District Attorney, and he told us we had the money if we needed to run additional tests,” Weaver said. “I had already decided that we’d get the money even if we had to stand in front of Walmart with a bucket and solicit from everyone who walked by.”

Griffith said if the DNA evidence he and Weaver hope to collect does not identify a killer or killers, the Robinson investigation will not stop. If the technique is successful, other cases will be coming off the cold file.

“We’re determined to find the individual or individuals who killed Mr. Robinson, and we will. If I were the killers, I’d hate to know that Danny Weaver and Shane Griffith are hunting me,” he said.

“We believe we will find the people involved, and when we do, we’ll be using this technique in a couple of other cold case murders. There’s no statute of limitations on murder, and we will never give up.”