Registered sex offender Ferdy A. Crutcher is escorted from Magisterial District Judge Daniel DeAntonio’s office Tuesday. He will stand trial for the August rape of a toddler in Altoona. Mirror photo by Greg Bock

A registered sex offender accused of raping a toddler in Altoona will face trial.

Magisterial District Judge Daniel DeAntonio heard testimony Tuesday from Altoona police Detective Sgt. Terry Merritts that the DNA of Ferdy A. Crutcher matched sperm found in a diaper of a 15-month old boy who Crutcher allegedly snatched from an apartment on the 800 block of Lexington Avenue early on the morning of Aug. 11 before he raped and beat the boy and then left him in an alley a block away.

The boy continues to recover from what doctors at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh told police were “near fatal” injuries that included injuries indicative of rape. Sperm was found inside the boy’s body as well as the diaper, although the sample from the diaper was the only one that could yield a DNA profile, Merritts said.

Testimony centered on the DNA evidence that Merritts testified was found in the boy’s diaper, which was pulled off the boy and found in weeds near the KNY Family Fitness building. Crutcher’s DNA matched the DNA profile gleaned from sperm found in the diaper, and Merritts also testified Crutcher, despite giving police two different accounts of what he did that night, knew details of the crime scene never released to the public, as well as the layout and details of the apartment.

One of those details was blood smears on the wall of the KNY Fitness building, which Crutcher mentioned in his second statement to police. Initially, Crutcher told police he took the boy for a walk about 3:30 a.m. at the behest of the toddler’s grandmother. After he got scared that he was going to be seen with the child, he abandoned the child and ran off, Merritts said, describing Crutcher’s first statement.

Merritts testified that Crutcher then broke down and said he wouldn’t lie before talking about arriving at the apartment and finding the boy already beaten, but up and walking around. Crutcher then claimed the boy’s grandmother instructed him to take the child to the area near the KNY building and to stage a crime scene by smearing blood on the wall and leaving the diaper in the weeds.

Merritts noted the details about the blood smeared on the wall and the finding of the diaper were not reported by police nor the news media.

Crutcher’s attorney, Theodore Krol, tried to chip away at the case by questioning Merritts on the contradictions in Crutcher’s statements, such as the facts surrounding the discovery of the boy in the alley. The family member who found the boy told police that he heard crying, but an officer who arrived moments later reported the child was unresponsive, Merritts told the court.

Krol said after the hearing that it was details like this, along with the contradictions, that raise questions with no clear answers, although he said the defense was able to learn more about the case against his client through Merritts’ testimony.

Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith objected several times to Krol’s line of questioning as he asked Merritts about the investigation and how Crutcher became the suspect despite no one seeing him in the apartment or even with the child. The boy’s grandmother has denied she was in a relationship with Crutcher, Merritts told the court, although he did say that he spoke to a witness recently who claimed Crutcher and the woman were seen together frequently at a local church.

Merritts testified that the family members acted in an unusual manner the night the boy disappeared and seemed almost disinterested in his condition. Merritts said they all seemed more interested in being able to go to bed than helping police.

The boy’s grandmother told police she walked out of the living room of the apartment to wash a spill off her clothes and could hear the boy running around and playing with a toy lawn mower. Suddenly, the noise stopped and she walked out to find he was gone, Merritts said. She denied Crutcher was in the apartment with her that night, Merritts said.

It was these inconsistencies between Crutcher’s statements and other witness statements that Krol said were the problem.

Smith told the court that no matter how many contradictions the defense wanted to explore at the hearing on Tuesday, the testimony showed more than enough to send the case to a trial, even if the evidence is circumstantial.

“Well, no one else’s DNA was found in that diaper, your honor,” Smith said of Crutcher’s DNA match.

Crutcher is no stranger to having Krol represent him. The attorney noted he represented the Johnstown native in the early 1990s when Crutcher was charged with the sexual assault of a toddler in Cambria County. Krol said he decided to take on the case on behalf of the Blair County Public Defender’s Office after Crutcher asked about him.

“I kind of felt obligated since I knew him 25 years ago and represented him in Cambria County in the sexual assault case,” Krol said.

Crutcher was sentenced to eight to 22 years in prison after pleading guilty in that crime, and Krol pointed out he served the entire 22 years.

Crutcher remains in Blair County Prison with bail having been denied by DeAntonio at Crutcher’s Oct. 31 arraignment.