Judge rules on DNA request for one of the men charged with Morrison Drive hit-and-runs (2024)

A judge denied a defense attorney's attempt to keep the Charleston Police Department from taking DNA evidence from his client as detectives seek to prove Max Gentilin ran over two 20-year-old women on Charleston's peninsula this spring.

Defense attorney Chris Adams had called for the emergency hearing earlier this month after investigators asked for a buccal swab but refused to show Adams the search warrant until after the DNA is collected, according a motion filed Aug. 1. Adams wanted to challenge investigators' probable cause to request DNA.

Gentilin was arrested on May 1, days after a pedestrian found the bodies ofArianna Gamber and Lizzy Zito lying in the brush off Morrison Drive near the entrance to the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. As police continued investigating, they discovered video that showed another vehicle ran over the women before Gentilin's sedan allegedly hopped the curb and plowed over Gamber and Zito in the early hours of April 28.

Gentilin and Seth Carlson are both charged with two counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving death. Carlson, who allegedly hit the women first, is also charged with two counts of reckless homicide.

Video shot by Gentilin's best friend shows the defendant parked at the nearby Morrison Drive apartment complex asking, "What am I supposed to do?" and telling his friend he believed he hit a tree, according to arrest warrant affidavits.

The victims' blood and hair was found on the underbelly of Gentilin's gray 2010 Acura TL sedan, according to the warrant.

Adams said the issue in this case is not if Gentilin was driving the car at the time of collision, but if he knew he hit people.

And Adams believes the state has to establish beyond a reasonable doubt Gamber and Zito were alive when Gentilin's car ran them over — 30 minutes after Carlson's truck initially did, police contend.

The state turned over evidence police have gathered so far about Gentilin's possible involvement to his attorney on Aug. 12. Adams noted it did not include a medical examiner's estimate on time of death.

"They arrested and charged Max before they were aware there was another driver who came along first," Adams told The Post and Courier after the hearing. "They have no evidence that Max was aware that his car would have ever touched either of the two victims at all, and that is a critical element of leaving the scene of an accident."

Deputy Solicitor Chad Simpson saidthe state needs DNA to bulk up its case in proving that Gentilin was the man driving the Acura when it hopped the curb and ran over Gamber and Zito.

Ninth Circuit Judge Roger M. Young Sr. agreed, denying Adam's motion to stop Gentilin's DNA from being collected.

"They would be remiss if they did not make every attempt to prove that" Gentilin was driving, Young said at the Aug. 14 hearing in Charleston County circuit court. "That would include having DNA that proves at some point in time the defendant was in the car."

There hasn't been a similar defense motion filed on behalf of Carlson, according to court records.

Gentilin and his parents attended the hearing in person. The 25-year-old was clad in a suit jacket and maroon tie, his ankle monitor poking out from beneath his left pant leg.

Gamber's family tuned in for the hearing online.Her mother, Nicole Gamber, had hoped Gentilin would be ordered to give a buccal swab.