YOUNGSTOWN Nine witnesses testify in Hogan murder trial

Prosecutors were expected to call their last witnesses today.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Nine witnesses testified Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, where Michael Hogan is on trial for a May 2002 hit-and-run that left a 71-year-old Struthers man dead.
Prosecutors were expected to wrap up their case today.Hogan, 38, of Boardman, is charged with murder and aggravated robbery. Authorities say he snatched a purse belonging to the victim's wife while the couple was unloading materials at a recycling drop-off site in Boardman.
The woman's husband, John K. Ruble Sr., chased the thief to get back the purse. He was dragged, then run over twice as the thief drove away.
Police searched the undercarriage of Hogan's 1987 Cadillac Fleetwood and retrieved hairs and a belt loop that they believe may have come from Ruble.
Donna Rose, a trace evidence analyst for the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation in Richfield, testified Monday that she examined the belt loop and Ruble's bloody denim shorts.
Rose said the items shared similar characteristics, such as thread thickness and chemical composition, but she could not say that the belt loop definitely came from Ruble's shorts.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney James T. Hartford, Rose said she also looked at a partial tire print on Ruble's T-shirt. She was unable to determine whether it was made by a tire on Hogan's car.
She said there was not enough of a print left on the shirt to compare it to prints from the car tires, which had been submitted to BCI by Boardman police.
Rose said she examined the hairs that were taken from the undercarriage of the car. Because there were no roots or scalp tissue connected to the hairs, they could not be tested for a "genetic fingerprint" that would be contained in Ruble's DNA, she said.
Hartford spent much of the day questioning the chain of custody of evidence that has been presented during the trial by assistant prosecutor Jeffrey Limbian. Hartford said there are time gaps in which possession of some evidence is unaccounted for.
Testimony was to resume today in the courtroom of Judge James C. Evans.
bjackson@vindy.com