Laura Hall's bid for parole denied

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Laura Hall, sentenced to 10 years for  tampering with evidence in Jennifer Cave's murder, has been rejected for parole, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said.

The denial was handed down Oct. 28, said TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark. She will be eligible for consideration again in October 2012.

In August, the state's Third Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday rejected Hall's bid for a new trial.

Defense attorneys at the time requested a new trial for Hall primarily because of accusations brought against the Austin Police Department's Forensics lab, questioning the quality of its examinations.

Hall's appellate brief stated that her appeal "concerned itself, in the main, with allegations that came to light, days before Hall's trial, that the Austin Police Department's Forensics lab . . . had been accused of doing substandard, shoddy, and incomplete DNA analysis with lax training and quality controls."

Hall is serving the decade-long sentence for tampering with evidence in connection with the 2005 mutilation of University of Texas student Jennifer Cave's body after Colton Pitonyak murdered her.

Pitonyak is serving a 55-year prison sentence for Cave's murder. The two friends then fled to Mexico in Hall's Cadillac before authorities caught up with them later.

Hall was convicted in 2007 and sentenced in July 2010.

Officials transferred Hall into state custody Aug. 3, when she was then taken to Plane State Jail in Dayton, Texas.