Michael Allen Hersh’s fate may come down to a single hair on a bloodied wash rag.
That was the main point of contention Wednesday between Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Tony Golik and defense attorney Jeff Sowder during closing arguments on the final day of Hersh’s eight-day murder trial in Clark County Superior Court.
Is the DNA found on the hair a link between Hersh and the crime scene? Or has it been contaminated and is therefore not reliable?
Jurors will continue deliberating today the fate of Hersh, a now 49-year-old convicted felon charged in the 1978 slaying of 47-year-old Norma Simerly at her Vancouver home.
Jurors received the case just after noon Wednesday, and were sent home at 5 p.m., after being unable to reach a verdict.
They are being asked to convict Hersh of two counts of first-degree murder; one charge alleges a theory of premeditation and the other charge alleges the murder was committed during a robbery or rape.
In closing arguments Wednesday morning, Golik outlined how the hair containing the mitochondrial DNA, the genetic material passed on by mothers, was an overwhelming link to Hersh.
The particular DNA profile matched fewer than 1 percent of Caucasians, odds that should serve as proof Hersh was the killer, Golik argued.
If that wasn’t enough, the deputy prosecutor said, jurors heard testimony from a woman, Joy Fletcher, brutally assaulted by Hersh 11 weeks after the Simerly killing.
He listed the similarities in the two attacks: Both women were middle-aged white women; both were attacked throughout the house; and both were bludgeoned in the face and found in the master bedroom.
The most striking similarity, Golik said, was how the women were tied up: Their hands were tied in front of their body by an article of women’s clothing.
“That’s a very distinct thing,” Golik said. “That’s a signature thing.”
But Sowder didn’t see the cases as similar and said the Fletcher assault was used merely to evoke sympathy from the jury.
“They have the fear factor and sympathy factor,” Sowder said. “You don’t convict Mr. Hersh because he did a bad thing 32 years ago.”
Sowder went on to point out what he described as holes in the case.
“What the state has here is a little bit of DNA evidence,” he said. “They have no confessions. They have no witness identifications.”
The DNA evidence found on the hair could have been subject to contamination, Sowder argued, because modern protocol for handling evidence and storing it wasn’t followed.
“One thing I keep thinking about this case is that it’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” he said. “There’s pieces missing and some pieces may be wrong.”
But Golik said that testing showed none of the 11 officers who handled the evidence contaminated it with their own DNA. And the hair had been washed at an Arizona crime lab before testing to protect from outside contamination.
“We’ve heard it over and over … that there were no signs of contamination,” he said.
As he wrapped up his case, Golik contended that Hersh implicated himself in the killing by telling Fletcher during the attack, “I’ve done this before.”
“This is what he’s done before,” Golik told jurors, holding up crime scene photos of Simerly’s killing.
If convicted of first-degree murder, it’s not clear what sentence Hersh would receive as the crime predates the state’s mandatory sentencing laws. The parole board would set a minimum sentence, and it’s possible Hersh could spend the rest of his life in prison.
