Kenneth Robinson

Kenneth Robinson, 54, of 163-11 Foch Blvd. in Jamaica, was previously convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced by Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard Buchter to 25 years to life in prison, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said

In March 2004, Robinson voluntarily allowed forensic experts to take a swab of his saliva for a DNA sample when he was being questioned by police on an unrelated matter, the DA said.
According to trial testimony, Robinson went to the apartment of his grandmother, Pauline Henninghan, at 14-01 36th Ave. in Astoria sometime between 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 4, 1989, and 9:15 a.m. the next day, and manually strangled her, the DA said. Henninghan's body was later discovered in the hallway of the apartment with an electrical cord tied around her neck and fastened to a doorknob, blood on her clothes, and marks and abrasions on her scalp and nose, Brown said.
When NYPD Crime Scene Unit officers arrived at Henninghan's apartment, they placed paper bags over her hands and taped them closed before taking her body to the morgue, the DA said. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner kept fingernail clippings taken from both Henninghan's hands during the autopsy, the DA said.
When Robinson gave the saliva sample, the Chief Medical Examiner's Office analyzed human cells recovered from under his grandmother's fingernails in 1989, and found that the DNA in those cells matched that in the sample from Robinson, Brown said. Robinson was further linked to the crime by a photo taken Nov. 5, 1989, during an interview with police about his grandmother's murder, and admitted as evidence at trial, showed him with a scratch mark on his neck, the DA said.