MAHONING COUNTY Expert says hairs from car likely are victim's

The hairs came from the victim or someone of the same maternal lineage.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A DNA expert testified Friday that hairs taken from underneath a car involved in a May 31, 2002, hit-and-run in Boardman probably came from 71-year-old John K. Ruble Sr. of Struthers.
Ruble was killed when the navy blue 1987 Cadillac Fleetwood ran over him twice and dragged him partly along the driveway of a recycling drop-off site behind the Boardman Township fire station on South Avenue.
Ruble and his wife, Louise, had gone there to drop off recyclable materials. While there, someone drove up, grabbed Mrs. Ruble's purse off the front seat of their car and fled. Ruble was run over while trying to stop the thief.
Charged with murder
Michael Hogan, 38, of Boardman, is on trial in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, charged with murder. Prosecutors say he was the driver of the car that ran over and killed Ruble.
Brian M. Sloan of Orchid Cellmark Forensics in Dallas, Texas, testified Friday that he examined and tested hair samples that police found in the car's undercarriage. He matched them against a sample of Ruble's blood and determined that they most likely came from Ruble.
He was not able to say with certainty that they were Ruble's hairs, but he said that because of their genetic makeup, they could only have come from him or from someone with the same maternal lineage as him.
What neighbor notices
Becky Fiore, who lives across the street from Hogan on Forest Ridge Drive in Boardman, testified that she was sitting on her front porch the evening of May 31, 2002, when she saw Hogan drive past her house and into his driveway, open his garage door, clear some space and pull the Cadillac inside the garage.
She said that was unusual because before that day, she had never seen the garage opened and the car had always sat outside. Hogan's mother usually drove the car, but Fiore said she never saw Mrs. Hogan drive the car after that day.
She did not see any damage to the vehicle as Hogan pulled it into the garage. At the time, she was not aware of the hit-and-run, which had happened some five hours earlier.
Fiore said she called Boardman police and told them about the car after hearing news accounts of Ruble's death and a description of the car involved.
Testimony will resume Monday in the courtroom of Judge James C. Evans.
bjackson@vindy.com