Prosecutors offer testimony on DNA in Hays trial
In the days after Danielle Nicole McManus’ death, state police took DNA samples from numerous men who lived in the Normalville area, hoping to find a genetic match. They found that Brian Keith Hays, McManus’ cousin, was a statistical match of 1 in 170 trillion to seminal fluid found on the 13-year-old girl, according to testimony Tuesday at Hays’ criminal homicide trial.
McManus’ charred remains were found in a van at a junkyard near the Clinton Road, Bullskin Township, home of her family. Hays told police he panicked and set the van on fire when his cousin suffered seizures after the two smoked crack together.
Police believe, based on DNA, that Hays sexually assaulted McManus, and they theorized she may have died fending him off. Hays has said he and McManus had consensual sex.
Fayette County District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon told jurors she will not be able to tell them how McManus died.
State police Cpl. Beverly Ashton testified that she and several other troopers received consent from eight area men, including Hays, to give DNA samples. To give the sample, Ashton testified, the men swabbed the insides of their cheeks.
In addition to the seminal fluid, Hays’ genetic sample matched DNA found on a copper crack pipe taken from the home of Hays’ stepfather, Robert Nichelson, and his wife, Kimberly McDonald Nichelson, according to expert testimony. McManus’ DNA was not on the pipe, according to authorities.
Both Hays and McManus lived at the home, along with several other children.
Before each of the men agreed to submit samples, Ashton testified, she advised them that “there was a very good possibility” that they were going to get DNA from McManus to compare to those samples.
Jurors also heard testimony from state police trooper Brian Mears, who said he interviewed Hays twice on May 3, 2003, the day McManus’ body was found.
During the first interview, Mears testified, Hays did not mention that he fell asleep on the porch of his stepfather’s home sometime during the early hours of May 3. Kimberly Nichelson testified Monday that Hays told her he slept on the porch that night.
It was only after Mears interviewed Lauren Hyatt, Hays’ former girlfriend and the mother of his child, that he told police where he had slept, the trooper testified. Mears also testified that during the second interview, Hays said he woke in the early morning of May 3 and went to the living room to watch television. Mears testified that while Hays woke up and sent one child sleeping in the living room to bed, he said he did not notice McManus.
Earlier testimony indicated she was sleeping on the loveseat in the living room.
Mears told defense attorney Mary Campbell Spegar that he summarized Hays’ statements and did not record them. Although Spegar asked if it were possible for Mears to have forgotten to include the earlier statement about the porch, he testified he did not.
Jurors also were taken to the Uniontown barracks of the state police to view a van like the one in which McManus’ body was found.
Testimony before Judge Steve P. Leskinen is expected to resume this morning, when jurors will hear from forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht.