Calling the prosecution's case "nothing but speculation," Sauberan's defense attorneys questioned the quality of the blood samples collected by police more than 40 years ago, evidence that was stored in Buffalo Police headquarters until Linda Tschari's killing got reexamined by the department's cold case squad starting in 2006.
In the end, jurors shouldn't expect the prosecution's case to add up, defense attorney Paul Dell said in his opening statement.
"At best, it's an interesting theory. Maybe a maybe. Definitely not a probably," Dell said.
Police had blood from two swabs, taken from the carriage house's upstairs and outer hallway, analyzed by the Erie County Central Police Services laboratory in 2007, Morgan told jurors.
At that point, the DNA profile data were not eligible to be uploaded into a national DNA database, Morgan said.
But that became possible in 2019, and shortly thereafter an analyst at the lab received notice the DNA matched a sample from Sauberan taken in Oregon when he went to prison in 2008, she said.
Sauberan, wearing a dress shirt and tie, khakis and red-framed eyeglasses, sat between Dell and Brian Towey, his attorneys, and appeared attentive throughout Monday's proceedings. At one point during his attorney's questioning of retired Buffalo Police Crime Scene Unit Detective James Maroney, Sauberan nodded when Maroney said it was possible swabs of blood samples may have been stored in plastic, a substance prosecutors said was not an acceptable storage material under current scientific standards.
Morgan and Ryan Flaherty, who are prosecuting the case, called five witnesses Monday, including Peter Dubiel, a retired Buffalo Police lieutenant.
Dubiel, a patrolman in 1978, and his partner were the first officers to arrive at the scene. He said he encountered Howard Tschari in the yard. Dubiel said he noticed blood in the snow outside the home and blood stains in various areas inside. None of the doors to the cottage were locked, he said.
Howard Tschari testified that the person spotted outside the cottage drove away in a green Chevrolet Nova.
Prosecutors said they have two witnesses known by Sauberan who owned green Chevy Novas, which Sauberan had access to. One of those witnesses, Sauberan's ex-wife, Elizabeth Fegley, also testified Monday. She and Sauberan married in September 1978, seven months after Tschari's killing.
Fegley described their relationship leading up to their marriage as "unhealthy," and she said there were periods of time when they would not see each other.
Prosecutors also entered into evidence police memos regarding statements made by Linda and Howard Tschari's mother, Raffaela Hunter, and Elizabeth Dietzman, who lived next door to the Tscharis on Pooley. Both women are deceased.
Hunter told police she saw a white male, approximately 5-feet, 10-inches tall with a medium build and wearing a navy blue ski cap and a navy blue coat, get into a dark green, two-door Chevy Nova parked across the street from their house, according to the memo read by Morgan.
Dietzman told police she left her house that morning at about 7:45 and saw a "plain-looking man" with a "round face" looking out a window from inside Linda Tschari's residence.
Maroney, the retired crime scene detective, told the jury when cold case detectives asked for the evidence files to be pulled from storage, police personnel initially didn't find all of what was in storage. Police ultimately found all the items that should have been there, Maroney said.
Sauberan remains held without bail. His trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday.
itullio, S
