Suspect faces trial for slaying
A Uniontown man was ordered to stand trial Wednesday at a preliminary hearing into the 1997 shooting death of a fellow hunter in Menallen Township based in part on DNA samples taken from deer remains that state police and prosecutors allege implicates the defendant. Lawrence Joseph Cseripko, 58, of 60 Fairview St. was held for court on a charge of criminal homicide in the Dec. 16, 1997, death of Paul Joseph Horvat Jr., 54, of Uniontown.
District Justice Mark Blair ordered Cseripko held for court and returned him to the county prison without bond.
The case against Cseripko, who turns 59 tomorrow, will be forwarded to county court where he will either have a trial or accept a plea
However, his attorney, Warner Mariani of Pittsburgh, said after the hearing that he intends to challenge the deer DNA in pre-trial motions and arguments when the case reaches the courthouse.
During the hearing, Mariani objected when Assistant District Attorney Joseph George Jr. asked Trooper Pierre A. Wilson of the Troop B cold case homicide squad to explain the result of DNA tests conducted on samples of deer meat and entrails as well as blood found on the victim’s clothes.
Mariani argued that courts and the scientific community do not generally accept deer DNA testing.
He said the test results were hearsay unless an expert could testify about how the testing was performed and whether the tests have been accepted in courts.
George argued that it should be up to a trial judge to decide whether or not to accept the test results and an expert would testify in a trial.
He said a preliminary hearing is not the proper venue to determine the validity of the tests.
Mariani countered that the tests can’t be used in a preliminary hearing if they are not supported by science.
Blair overruled the objection and accepted the test results as evidence.
Wilson said deer steaks and chops that police seized as evidence under a search warrant from Cseripko’s freezer in 1998, samples from a dead and field-dressed deer found in a field adjacent to the wooded area where Horvat’s body was found, samples from two deer-gut piles found in that adjacent field, flesh recovered near the victim and blood on the victim’s clothes were recently submitted to Therion International Laboratories in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Test results showed that the steaks and chops, one of the gut piles, deer flesh from the crime scene and blood on Horvat’s clothes matched, Wilson said.
For comparison purposes, police also submitted samples from a number of deer found dead along roads in Menallen Township, he said.
Under cross-examination, Wilson said he could not explain a DNA match.
During direct examination, he said an arrest warrant for Cseripko was based on the test results.
In an interview conducted after he was arrested on Oct. 28 this year, the defendant said he was at the crime scene, contradicting statements he made during several interviews conducted following the incident in which he did not say he was at the scene, Wilson said.
Wilson said several guns were also taken from Cseripko’s home and a .30-06-caliber rifle was tested. When he came to the station to retrieve his guns, he said, “Did the lab tell you I didn’t kill him with that gun,” Wilson said.
He said a coroner’s report attributed the cause of death to three gunshot wounds – to the chest, neck and back.
Under cross-examination, Wilson said Cseripko did not admit to the crime and did not see the victim or anybody else in the area that day.
The first person to testify Wednesday said he saw Cseripko and Horvat in the woods that day.
Dewey Lawrence Stewart, 68, of Baer Road, Smock, said he gave Horvat permission to hunt on the property, which he owns and is located a few hundred yards away from his home, and saw both men there that day.
He said he has known both men since at least two or three years before the incident.
Stewart said he heard a gunshot at approximately 9 a.m., entered the woods and saw Horvat climbing down from a tree stand. He said Horvat told him that he shot a doe in the adjacent field.
As he was walking back to his house, he saw Cseripko in a pickup truck. The defendant was wearing blaze orange hunting clothes.
While they were talking, Cseripko showed him a Ruger .243-caliber rifle, Stewart said.
He said he was aware of a disagreement between the two men so he advised Cseripko to hunt a different part of the property and to avoid Horvat.
“I warned him to stay away from him,” Stewart said, but Cseripko did not respond.
He said the disagreement stemmed from Horvat apparently poaching a deer on that property during the prior year.
He said he encountered Cseripko twice at gun shops sometime between then and the December 1997 incident, and he threatened to kill Horvat on both occasions.
“He said if he ever saw that SOB he’d shoot him and kill him,” Stewart said.
On the day of the incident, Stewart said he walked back to his house after he talked with Cseripko and heard two gunshots about 20 to 25 minutes later. Then two or three minutes after than, he said he heard a muffled gunshot.
About 30 to 40 minutes later, he saw Cseripko drive past his house in the pickup truck, but did not know if he had a deer in the bed.
During Wilson’s testimony, he said .243-caliber ammunition was also taken from the defendant’s home, but it did not match the bullet fragments removed from the victim’s body.
He said no .243-caliber rifle was ever recovered and neither was the gun that Horvat used that day.
After the hearing, George said police kept the deer evidence frozen since the incident until recently when they were able to locate a lab that tests animal DNA.
“They didn’t get a break until they discovered Therion,” George said.
He said animal DNA was accepted as evidence in a recent California case and ruling is pending in another case in Pennsylvania.
George said he expects the defense to try to have the DNA evidence thrown out and Therion representatives will be present for pre-trail hearings.