Prosecution Focuses On Specific DNA Link In Double Murder Trial
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- On Friday, more prosecution testimony focused on the forensic science used in the investigation involving the murders of two women in Philadelphia, back in 1989. A Paulsboro, New Jersey man is on trial, after DNA linked him in 2014.
Jurors are learning that for 25 years, the 1989 murders or Cheryl Hanible and Ruby Ellis -a month apart - were unsolved.
By 2014, Philadelphia benefited from a federal grant that allowed investigators to compare cold case DNA profiles against biological materials in an FBI database. That's how they came upon the defendant, 54-year-old Rudolph Churchill.
At one point, out of view of jurors, defense lawyer Gina Capuano asked the judge to instruct jurors that when the defendant's name was found in the DNA national database, the reason is not because he was a sex offender. Assistant DA Gwen Cujdik says it was because of a burglary conviction in Georgia.
Judge Rose Marie DeFino Nastasi says it should be clear to jurors that 'they can only deal with the evidence in this courtroom.'
Churchill allegedly made a confession that if he 'didn't get into trouble in Georgia, there would not have been a DNA link.'