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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- A Blair County jury will continue deliberating today to consider the fate of Paul Aaron Ross, the Hollidaysburg man accused in the 2004 murder of a 26-year-old Hollidaysburg woman.
As of 11:10 p.m. Monday, after almost nine hours of deliberations, the jury had not reached verdicts. Ross is facing charges of criminal homicide, aggravated assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful restraint, simple assault, false imprisonment and indecent assault.
At 10:30 p.m. Monday, President Judge Elizabeth Doyle gave the jury a choice of continuing to work or returning today. The jury chose to work another half hour, and then to return at 9 a.m. today.
After listening to nine days of testimony regarding the death of Tina S. Miller, attorneys presented closing arguments on Monday.
"Tina Miller's soul has cried out nearly 17 years for justice and now you have a chance to give it to her," retired District Attorney Richard Consiglio, lead prosecutor, told the jurors in his closing.
Defense attorney Thomas M. Dickey told the jury that the prosecution failed to prove that it was Ross who murdered Miller.
Dickey, in his closing, referenced the lack of Ross' DNA on the duct tape found around Miller's mouth when her body was found June 27, 2004, partly submerged in a tributary to the lake at Canoe Creek State Park.
Consiglio pointed out in his closing that there was very little DNA on that duct tape and no way of knowing how many hands touched the duct tape.
In his closing, Consiglio also asked the jurors to recall early trial testimony, when Ross, while at a Hollidaysburg bar, spoke of wanting to "get laid." Later, at a Scotch Valley residence while partying with three other men and Miller, Ross suggested "pulling a train" with Miller, a reference for a series of males having sex with her.
Witnesses testified that Jim Fees gave Ross and Miller a ride from his Scotch Valley residence and dropped them off at a boat launch at the state park, near Ross' home. Fees said Ross asked to be dropped there to avoid waking up his father. Hours later, her body, beaten and mutilated, was found.
Dickey reminded the jury that Miller had a black belt in karate. With as many as four types of footprints found in the investigation area identified by police, the defense attorney suggested that more than one person was involved in overtaking Miller.
Consiglio offered a different theory based on Miller's autopsy report.
"I suspect the karate expert was overcome when she was smacked on the head three times," Consiglio said. "That at the least dazed her and that's how he got the duct tape on her."
In addition to duct tape around her mouth, duct tape was used to bind her wrists behind her back.
Dickey also tried to get the jury to accept that Ross had scratches on his legs from mountain biking. He pointed out that on the night he was with Miller, Ross was wearing blue jeans that would have protected his legs.
Consiglio later countered that Ross' jeans would have protected his legs, "unless (Ross) took the jeans off when he deposited his DNA in her mouth."
During Miller's 2004 autopsy, a swab of her mouth, reexamined in 2014 using updated DNA testing methods, identified DNA most likely from semen and most likely from Ross.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay
Stephens is at 814-946-7456.