XENIA — Day two of an evidentiary hearing for death row inmate David Lee Myers featured testimony from a noted DNA expert from a Mississippi-based lab.

Myers was convicted and sentenced to death in 1996 for the much-publicized railroad spike death of Amanda Jo Maher near some abandoned railroad tracks in Xenia. In February, his attorneys filed a motion in Greene County Common Pleas Court to vacate his death sentence and receive a new trial based on newly discovered DNA evidence they said proves his innocence.

An evidentiary hearing — presided over by Visiting Judge Jonathan P. Hein who will ultimately decide if Myers is granted a new trial — began in Greene County Common Pleas Court Monday. DNA and DNA testing was the main discussion on day one and that continued Tuesday.

George Schiro, lab director at Scales Biological Laboratory and consultant for Forensic Science Resources in suburban Jackson, Mississippi, testified that he completed a forensic study on evidence taken from Maher’s body. Schiro said he lowered the threshold for analyzing a DNA profile and was able to detect twice as many markers as another lab.

“It revealed to me that (Myers) was excluded as a contributor to this profile,” Schiro said under oath.

During cross-examination, Chief Trial Counsel Charles W. “Bill” Morrison asked if Schiro was there representing Scales or Forensic Science Resources. Schiro said he was representing Forensic Science Resources as a consultant but said it operates out of Scales laboratory.

Schiro was also asked if there are threshold standards in DNA testing and he confirmed there are when he represents Scales but not as a consultant.

Myers has maintained his innocence for decades while the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office has opposed myriad motions by Myers since he first asked for a new trial.

“The jury got it right in 1996,” Hayes told this newspaper. “In my view, the evidence of David Lee Myers guilt is overwhelming. The Greene County Prosecutor’s Office is committed to defending the conviction and seeing that Myers pays the ultimate price for this vicious murder. We believe that the facts and the law are on our side, and we believe that the visiting judge hearing the case will see it the same way.”

The hearing is schedule to continue Wednesday with more witnesses for Myers.

Contact Scott Halasz at 937-502-4507.