Jury resumes deliberations Monday in 1989 slayings
Deliberations resume Monday in the trial of a New Jersey man accused of having killed two women in north Philadelphia more than a quarter-century ago.
Fifty-four-year-old Rudolph Churchill of Paulsboro, New Jersey is charged in the March 1989 rape and murder of 19-year-old Ruby Ellis and the April 1989 slaying of 33-year-old Cheryl Hanible.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that jurors spent about 90 minutes reviewing evidence Friday before breaking for the weekend.
Police said in 2014 that DNA tests linked Churchill to the slayings. But defense attorney Gina Capuano called the link tenuous, saying her client’s DNA wasn’t found on either body.
Capuano also points to other physical evidence, including rape kits done during the autopsies, that has been lost since the 1989 slayings.
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