Deer DNA link to slaying upheld
A Uniontown man linked to a hunter's 1997 killing through genetic testing on deer remains was ordered held for trial despite his lawyer's argument that the test results were inadmissible.
Lawrence Cseripko, 58, of 60 Fairview St., is accused of shooting Paul Horvat three times in a wooded area of Menallen Township on Dec. 16, 1997, before stealing a deer that Horvat had just shot and leaving the 54-year-old man for dead. A preliminary hearing on a single charge of homicide was held on Wednesday -- one day after what would have been Horvat's 61st birthday.
Police used DNA technology to determine that venison found in Cseripko's freezer in 1998 was a genetic match to entrails and blood found near Horvat's body. Based on the lab results, Cseripko was arrested on Oct. 28.
A report of those results was entered into evidence yesterday before District Justice Mark Blair, of Uniontown. Warner Mariani, the Pittsburgh lawyer representing Cseripko, argued that the report was inadmissible without expert testimony explaining it.
Representatives from the Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-based Therion International Laboratories, which performed the analysis, did not attend yesterday's hearing.
Though DNA testing on humans has come to be accepted throughout the court system, Mariani said DNA testing on deer is too new a concept to allow as unquestioned evidence.
Under cross-examination by Mariani, Trooper Pierre Wilson, of the state police cold case unit, said the lab results indicated the deer meat in Cseripko's freezer matched entrails and blood found near Horvat's body.
"What does 'match' mean?" Mariani asked. DNA tests, when performed on the human genome, generally show results with a degree of statistical confidence, such as one in a billion or trillion.
Wilson said he could not elaborate on how confident of a match Cseripko's venison was to the evidence at the scene. But he testified that the meat did not match other entrails, blood or even a deer carcass found several hundred yards away.
Police helped Therion build a comparative database by taking samples from deer killed by hunters and in auto accidents in the vicinity of the crime, Wilson said.
First Assistant District Attorney Joe George argued that the information available yesterday was adequate for a preliminary hearing and that county court would be a more suitable venue for Mariani's argument. Blair agreed.
"We're going to allow it," Blair said.
Though Cseripko has not admitted to the killing, Wilson testified that the defendant has made several potentially damaging statements.
Referring to a .30-06 rifle the police confiscated from him, Wilson said Cseripko asked, "Did the lab tell you I did not kill him with this gun?"
On the day police took him into custody, Cseripko admitted to being at the scene of the crime, Wilson said. In three previous interviews, he did not.
Police began looking at Cseripko as a suspect in 1998 after a nearby resident, Dewey Lawrence Stewart, told officers about a grudge between Cseripko and Horvat.
About a year before the homicide, the two men reportedly argued over deer. Cseripko accused Horvat of poaching.
State records indicate neither man has been convicted of a hunting violation.
Stewart told police that Cseripko said on two occasions that he'd kill Horvat if he had the chance.
On the witness stand yesterday, Stewart retold the story. He was out for a walk on Dec. 16, 1997, when he came across Horvat, who had just shot a doe. Horvat lived in Alaska and was staying with relatives in Uniontown at the time.
Stewart said he saw Cseripko not long after bumping into Horvat. Recalling the grudge, he said he warned him to find someplace else to hunt.
"I knew they had a problem a year before," he said. "I warned him to stay away from him."
Cseripko was holding a .243-caliber rifle that day and was wearing blaze orange, the color of the prison jumpsuit he wore yesterday as he sat quietly in Blair's courtroom, often looking at the floor.
Wilson said the police were unable to find the .243-caliber rifle at Cseripko's residence -- or Horvat's rifle anywhere.
Stewart said he walked back to his home, hearing two gunshots and a third, muffled one, about 25 minutes later. Around 30 to 40 minutes after that, he said he saw Cseripko's truck driving from the woods.
Under cross-examination, Stewart said he couldn't determine whether the shots he heard were from a rifle.
Cseripko remains in the Fayette County Prison.
