Trial Ordered For Handyman In Murder of Retired Villanova Prof.
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Germantown handyman has been ordered held for trial in the murder of a retired Villanova University professor inside her Wayne Avenue home last December (see previous story).
Retired assistant astronomy and astrophysics professor Carol Ambruster, 69, was found dead in her apartment last December 9th.
It was a horribly bloody scene. She'd been stabbed with a butcher knife that remained embedded in her neck when her body was discovered.
At a preliminary hearing today for defendant Jose Diaz, pictures of boot prints in the blood were displayed in court.
Philadelphia prosecutor Mark Levenberg says those bloody boot prints and DNA link Diaz to the murder.
"Jose Diaz, his boots had the victim's blood on them. They were found in his house. The footprint matches. There is no question that Jose Diaz committed this crime. It was a brutal and horrific beating and robbery," Levenberg said today.
But defense attorney Benjamin Cooper says Diaz -- who worked as a handyman for a contractor at the building where Armbruster lived -- is not guilty, while acknowledging he can't answer questions about the DNA because he hasn't seen the DNA analysis.