A 29-year employee of the Colorado Bureau of Investigations has pleaded guilty to four felonies, including manipulating DNA results.

Over 1,000 criminal cases have been called into question since an investigation into former CBI Forensic Scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods began in 2023. On Tuesday, a county court sentenced her to 10 years in prison.

In 2023, the investigation was launched into Woods after irregular DNA testing results were flagged at the Colorado Bureau of Investigations.

“When a scientist breaks the rules, it’s not just their own cases that suffer,” Woods told the Jefferson County District Court during Tuesday’s sentencing.

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“My job was to give you answers that you could trust," Woods said in the courtroom in the city of Golden. "Instead I gave some of you reasons to doubt the results you already had, and I gave others of you no answer at all.”

Woods, 66, worked for the CBI for 29 years, including as a forensic scientist. In September 2023, DNA anomalies were reported in her test data that kicked off the years-long investigation.

Woods pleaded guilty to four felonies – attempting to influence a public servant, cybercrime, forgery and perjury during a June 23 court date. The plea agreement gave her a window of eight to 16 years in prison and resulted in prosecutors dropping an additional 98 charges.

“Heavy workloads do not authorize a forensic scientist to disregard established procedures,” Jefferson County District Court Judge Andrew Poland said Tuesday in the courtroom.

Woods’ defense argued her crimes took place in the final years of her time at CBI, when her caseload had nearly doubled.

But Woods was ultimately sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by three years parole.

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The four felony charges will be served concurrently – 10 years for cyber crime, six years for attempt to influence a public servant, six years for perjury and four years for forgery. Following the sentencing, Woods was taken into custody.

Woods previously pleaded not guilty to all 102 charges against her in a February 11 court date.

In total, 1,045 cases were identified to have been impacted by Woods, which cost the state $11 million to review. Fifty-two cases were flagged where she said something categorically untrue, with 12 resulting in formal charges and three going to trial, according to Darren Kafka, senior deputy district attorney for the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

The case of Ryan Hicks, a man sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2014, has since been called into question with Woods having given testimony on his case.

Following the sentencing, CBI Director Armando Saldate III told the public new details about Woods’ case that had not been shared during the investigation and trial.

"Woods did not create DNA profiles that did not exist or fabricate evidence to implicate an innocent person,“ Saldate told reporters Wednesday. “What she did was deliberately eliminate steps … In short, she cut corners to stop testing sooner and did not complete tests.”

Saldate added that the CBI had undergone internal and external investigations to determine how Woods' illegal conduct had not been caught sooner and to identify how the agency can improve.

“None of the reforms we’ve implemented will erase the harm caused by Missy Woods. She violated the trust placed in her,” said Saldate. “But her actions do not define the Colorado Bureau of Investigations.”

A further hearing to decide whether Woods owes victims restitution is set for November 12.