In San Diego death row inmate Kevin Cooper's fight...

In San Diego death row inmate Kevin Cooper's fight to avoid execution for killing 4 people in Chino Hills in 1983 was dealt a major setback when new DNA tests determined that hairs found on the victims probably belonged to them, and not to another suspect. The DNA tests, which were conducted by Dr. Terry Melton, a Pennsylvania-based expert recommended by Cooper's defense attorneys, are expected to be presented at an appeals hearing today in U.S. District Court in San Diego. Melton's test results were sent Wednesday to the California attorney general, Cooper's attorneys and U.S. District Judge Marilyn Huff, Sources said. David Alexander, Cooper's attorney, said he had reviewed Melton's report and said the findings did not appear to support a defense theory that someone else might have committed the murders. "It is my understanding she didn't find a non-victim hair," he said. Doug and Peggy Ryen, their 11-year-old daughter, Jessica, and a 10-year-old house guest, Christopher Hughes, were killed on the night of June 4, 1983, 2 days after Cooper had escaped from Chino state prison and hid in a small house near the Ryen home. Cooper was convicted of the Ryen/Hughes murders in 1985 and was due to be executed by lethal injection shortly after midnight Feb. 10. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals stayed his execution on Feb. 9 and called for Huff to order the tests of crime scene hair.