DNA led to charges in cold case murder

The family of a 61-year-old woman who was shot to death outside her New Cassel workplace in 1995 has waited 16 years for her killer to be found.

Thursday, in a packed a Nassau courtroom relatives of the woman, Vilma Portillo, watched as prosecutors filed a murder charge against the Hempstead man police say ambushed and robbed her on her payday on Sept. 14, 1995.

"It's a little piece, somewhat, of justice," said Maribel Rodriguez of Hempstead, who was 23 when her mother was killed.

The arrest and arraignment of Paul Sampson, 65, of Burr Avenue, came a year after police were able to use forensic technology not available 16 years ago to match Sampson's DNA to DNA on a piece of clothing left near the scene, Nassau's homicide head, Det. Lt. John Azzata said.

Using the DNA match, investigators spent the past year reinterviewing witnesses as they built their case, Azzata said.

Rodriguez said she was conflicted as she and nine other children and grandchildren of Portillo watched Sampson's arraignment on a second-degree murder charge in First District Court in Hempstead. Sampson was held without bail in connection with the slaying.

"I was disgusted, but happy," she said of seeing Sampson, still dressed in pajamas and a T-shirt, stand before Judge Helen Voutsinas. He pleaded not guilty.

Sampson's daughter did not comment on her father's arraignment Thursday.

Sampson, who has served prison time for grand larceny and manslaughter in connection with beating his girlfriend to death with a baseball bat in 1981, is due back in court on Monday.

Portillo, a mother of eight and grandmother of 18, was days away from retiring from her job as a janitor at the E-Z-EM pharmaceutical and medical device company when she was beaten and shot in the head as she sat in her red Toyota pickup truck in a parking lot outside the Main Street company, police said.

Police at the time said someone who likely knew her movements had waited for her to leave the job that Thursday, which was also payday. She was robbed of $4,000.

Azzata said at a news conference Thursday that Sampson knew Portillo because he had bought clothing from a side business she ran to make extra money. Police and Rodriguez said Sampson is also related to a former co-worker of Portillo's.

Evidence from the scene indicated that Portillo struggled with her attacker. Police think Sampson dropped the clothing "so that he would not be recognized fleeing the scene." Azzata did not say what the item was or where it was found.

Technology available at the time did not allow police to link the DNA to any suspect, and Sampson was not a person of interest then.

Azzata said the DNA match occurred last year when police plugged the DNA into a statewide database. The arrest came Wednesday after police talked to Portillo's former co-workers. Azzata did not elaborate further on the evidence.

Rodriguez said she and her family never gave up on the justice system.

"It is a tragedy but we lived with the hope and faith," she said. "I knew that eventually, down the road, you can't hide from it. Sooner or later, it would come out in the open. I never gave up faith."

With John Valenti