Expert testifies DNA sample from suspect's truck tire matched slain Ormond Beach teen's DNA

A Florida Department of Law Enforcement analyst testified on Friday that she found Ericka Dane’s DNA on a sample taken from a tire on Noah Motto’s pickup truck.

Motto, 23, is charged in Dane's death, who was his girlfriend at the time. He's on trial charged with leaving the scene of a crash with death and vehicular homicide/fail to give aid or information, both first-degree felonies. He is being held at the Volusia County Branch Jail.

The fatal crash happened at about 2:30 a.m. on March 24, 2021, at Greenvale Drive and Ormond Green Boulevard, down the street from Dane's house in Ormond Beach, prosecutors said.

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Motto and Dane, 18, had returned home from a bonfire with some friends. Before going to the bonfire, the group had bought some alcohol.

Dane wanted Motto to spend the night, but he got in his truck and drove away. She walked down the street to the intersection he would be driving through.

Prosecutors say Motto struck her with his truck and drove away. Motto’s defense attorneys disagree and claim that Dane, who was intoxicated, fell and hit her head on the pavement.

Prosecutors completed presenting their case on Friday. Circuit Judge Raul Zambrano is presiding over the trial before an eight-person jury including two alternates.

On Friday, Assistant State Attorney Kevin Sullivan called to the stand FDLE Analyst Kasey Officer-Duncan.  She testified that a sample of DNA, which investigators said was taken from the right rear tire on Motto’s truck, matched Dane’s DNA. She testified that samples taken from other spots on the right side did not yield any DNA samples or matches.

During cross-examination, one of Motto’s defense attorneys, Lily McCarty, asked Officer-Duncan if the documentation with the sample indicated whether it was the rear tire. The FDLE analyst said it only indicated the right tire.

Measuring the speed of Motto's truck

Earlier on Friday, Assistant State Attorney Erica Kane replayed a homeowner’s security video which recorded the incident. Prosecutors had an expert enhance the video to focus on the accident.

The enhanced video showed Dane walking to the corner. It showed Motto’s pickup rolling up to the corner and stopping, and Dane walking to the truck. Then the video shows the truck accelerate and Dane’s body falls to the ground at a point ahead of where the pickup had stopped.

Prosecutors called to the stand John Buchanan, an accident reconstructionist and former traffic homicide investigator, who testified that he used the video to guide him on tests he ran on Motto’s truck to measure his speed the night of the incident.

Buchanan said the truck’s maximum speed over a 60-foot distance was 26 mph. The distance was from where the truck was stopped to where it left the frame of the video.

Buchanan then measured the truck from its starting point to approximately where Dane’s body came to rest. He said the distance of that run was 40 feet, and the maximum speed of Motto's pickup was 14 to 18 mph.

Dueling medical examiners in Motto case

Earlier in the trial, prosecutors had called Volusia County Medical Examiner James Fulcher who said he believed that Dane was most likely struck by a vehicle, most likely a tire, and thrown down the road before suffering a fatal skull fracture and other injuries.

Fulcher said it was unlikely that an 18-year-old woman would suffer such a skull fracture from simply falling.

Motto’s defense attorney McCarty called to the stand Stephen Nelson, the chief medical examiner for the 10th Judicial Circuit covering Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties.

McCarty asked Nelson if he saw tire marks on photographs of Dane’s body.

“I do not see tire marks on the body of Ericka Dane,” Nelson said.

She asked him whether he saw any injuries that indicated she was struck by a tire on an area on her right leg.

“There’s nothing here that says to me that it’s a tire impression,” Nelson said.

Nelson testified that Dane had a blood alcohol content of 0.196, which he said was twice the legal limit for intoxication. He said that would impact her ability to control her body.

McCarty asked if an abrasion to the right side of Dane’s face could be caused by a vape pen she was holding near her face. Nelson said it could and he could not rule it out.

McCarty asked if the injury to the back of Dane’s head was consistent with her running and falling and hitting the back of her head.

“Yes, that’s very consistent with that,” Nelson said.

McCarty asked if Nelson saw any signs that she had been struck by a vehicle.

“I don’t see any evidence of any kind of interaction with a motor vehicle,” Nelson said.

Prosecutor Kane then cross-examined Nelson asking him whether it would take a high-velocity impact for Dane to have suffered the circumferential, complex skull fracture.

Nelson said he saw the fracture commonly with motor vehicle accidents. But Nelson said he also saw it with someone who fell to the ground.

Kane asked about the injury to Dane’s spinal cord. Nelson said it could have come from a fall to the ground. Nelson also said that Dane was walking or running and had momentum.

Kane asked Nelson if during his career he had seen such a skull fracture and spinal injury in an 18-year-old who was running and fell, like running a 10-minute mile.

“Well, again, off the top of my head, I didn’t know that I was going to be asked all of my cases for my entire 30- or 40-some years career, so off the top of my head I can't give you a for-instance,” Nelson said.

Kane said she had spoken to Nelson a couple of months ago and asked him about specific cases. She asked if he had had the opportunity to look.

“No, I have not looked,” Nelson said.

Nelson at one point complained that Kane was asking him the same question repeatedly.

At another point, Judge Zambrano told Nelson not to argue.

Nelson also said he saw no dirt from Motto’s dirty truck on Dane’s body in the pictures he was shown.

Kane asked Nelson about injuries to various places on Dane’s body, including her right thigh, right arm, hand, back and ankle.

Nelson testified that a linear injury to Dane's back was consistent with an injury from her sports bra. Nelson testified that a linear injury to her thigh was consistent with being caused by her shorts.

Nelson said he saw no signs of smudges from a tire on the pictures of Dane’s body.  Nelson told jurors that when they go home to touch a tire on a car and they would get a smudge on their hands.

Zambrano told Nelson not to give instructions to jurors.

Jurors are routinely cautioned by the court not to do any research related to the case. When Zambrano dismissed the jurors for the day, he told them not to follow Nelson's instructions.

The trial continues on Monday with the defense presenting its case.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Noah Motto trial: Defense witness says victim fell, wasn't struck by truck