Expert: DNA links Norman Pryor to rape – Canton Repository

Prosecutors used DNA evidence to link Norman L. Pryor to the rape of a woman in Canton last August.

CANTON One in a trillion.

Those are the statistical odds of finding another person with the DNA that links Norman L. Pryor to the rape of a woman in Canton last August, according to a forensic analyst.

Sam Troyer, of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, testified Thursday for the prosecution during Pryor's trial in Stark County Common Pleas Court on three rape charges and single counts of felonious assault and kidnapping.

Troyer was expected to be the last witness called by the Stark County Prosecutor's Office before resting its case. It was unclear whether the defense would call any witnesses before sending the case to a jury of 10 women and four men, including two alternates.

The DNA testimony culminated more than two days of prosecution witnesses.

Earlier this week, the woman testified that on Aug. 1 she had parked her vehicle and was walking to work at Aultman Hospital about 5:30 a.m. when a man wearing a ski mask, dark clothes and hoodie tackled her to the ground. (The Canton Repository does not generally name the victims of sexual assault.)

She said the man sexually assaulted her in the parking lot area before forcing her to get into her vehicle and drive away. Answering questions from Fred Scott, an assistant Stark County prosecutor, she said the man ordered her to park in the Arlington Avenue NW area, where he raped her two times while also hitting her in the jaw area repeatedly and choking her about five times. The woman told jurors the assailant threatened to slit her throat with a box-cutter and told her he would kill her family if she reported the crimes to authorities.

During Tuesday's testimony, she said she couldn't identify the man's face because of the ski mask but said his voice matches that of Pryor, who had started the trial representing himself before abruptlyasking standby attorney Derek Lowry to take over.

After being raped in the backseat of her vehicle, she testified, the perpetrator used a reusable bag to wipe his semen from her body. He discarded the bag outside the vehicle in the Arlington and Third Street NW area, the woman said.

After reporting the rape, the woman described to police the route she said she had driven with the assailant. Investigators then found the shopping bag and had it tested by the Ohio BCI.

Troyer said that DNA consistent with Pryor's was found from a stain on the bag. The analyst said he wouldn't expect to find the same DNA profile in more than one in one trillion random people. Under prosecution questioning, Troyer said there are less than one trillion people on the planet.

Pryor's DNA profile also was found in a sample taken from the woman's body, said Troyer, citing the same one in a trillion statistical odds for the results.

Lowry questioned the basis and formula for the statistical analysis.

Scott asked Troyer a rebuttal question: "Are you confident with your statistical analysis in this case?"

"Yes, I am," Troyer replied.

Reach Ed at 330-580-8315and ed.balint@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @ebalintREP

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Expert: DNA links Norman Pryor to rape - Canton Repository