DNA analyst gives key testimony in East Windsor murder trial
Mar. 29—The jury in the Gabriel Hesse murder trial on Tuesday heard a central aspect of the prosecution's case against him, a DNA analyst's testimony that it was highly likely that blood stains on a sneaker found under his East Windsor mobile home came from his murdered father, Halsey Hesse Jr.
DNA TESTIMONY
VICTIM'S DNA: Bloodstains on sneaker found under Gabriel Hesse's mobile home and on screwdriver from his pickup truck "consistent with" his murdered father, Halsey Hesse Jr.
SUSPECT'S DNA: Gabriel couldn't be eliminated as a contributor to one of stains on sneaker but was eliminated as source of any of the DNA found on the screwdriver.
The analyst, Kristen Madel of the state Forensic Science Laboratory in Meriden, didn't perform the DNA analysis but did review another analyst's work to check that it was done properly. That was the basis for her testimony Tuesday in Gabriel Hesse's Hartford Superior Court trial.
In a police interview on Oct. 9, 2019, the day he reported finding his father's body in Halsey's Fairway Drive mobile home, Gabriel said he had only the shoes he was wearing during the interview and a pair of boots, East Windsor police Detective Scott Roberts reported in an affidavit.
Gabriel said he had been wearing the shoes he had on during the interview when he found his father's body, which was surrounded by large amounts of blood, adding that he never got close to the body, according to a recording of the interview played to the jury Tuesday.
The next day, a judge authorized a search of Gabriel's mobile home, in a park at 255 South Main St. in East Windsor, according to Roberts' affidavit. The search turned up a pair of black sneakers in a plastic bag under the rear section of the mobile home, behind a pile of old tires, according to Roberts' affidavit.
Surveillance video from stores Gabriel Hesse had visited around the time of his father's death, played earlier in the trial, showed him wearing black sneakers.
Madel testified that a bloodstain on the right sneaker came from one male and that the DNA testing results were "consistent with" that stain having come from Halsey Hesse. Madel testified later under direct examination by prosecutor Amy Bepko that state lab personnel never say they are absolutely certain of a DNA identification.
She said they use the term "consistent with" to mean that all DNA types found in an "unknown" sample, such as the blood on the sneaker, are present in the known sample, in this case Halsey Hesse's blood.
Another bloodstain, found on the interior of the right sneaker, was a mixture from four contributors. Madel said Halsey Hesse "cannot be eliminated" as a contributor to that stain because it was at least 700 million times more likely that the stain came from him and three unknown people than that it came from four unknown people.
She also testified that Gabriel Hesse "cannot be eliminated" as a contributor to the DNA mixture on the interior of the right sneaker but could be eliminated as a source of other stains on the sneaker. Another bloodstained item seized from Gabriel was a screwdriver found in his pickup truck.
Madel testified that DNA testing of bloodstains from the screwdriver's handle and shaft were "consistent with" Halsey Hesse being their source.
She also testified that Gabriel Hesse was eliminated as a source of any of the DNA found on the screwdriver.
On cross examination, public defender R. Bruce Lorenzen asked Madel whether police ever ask that unidentified DNA profiles found on evidence items be compared to one another. Madel replied that it is "not the normal procedure" to compare two crime-scene samples to each other. But she acknowledged that there is a database, known as CODIS, for comparing unknown crime-scene samples to known offenders.
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