XENIA — Validity of hair microscopy was the focal point during the fourth day of an evidentiary hearing for death row inmate David Lee Myers.

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.

The 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.

Thursday’s testimony began with a live video call from the court to Dr. Maria Cuellar, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in statistics, probability, and forensics. Cuellar has done research on constructional bias, the validity of black box studies, and studying algorithms using 3D imaging in forensic work.

In 2022, Cuellar wrote about her findings regarding the Myers’ case which included analysis of hair microscopy and a 2015 FBI report of which she applied a concept called “foundation validity” and forensic science guidelines of “accurate and consistent.” She discussed factors that defined “structural and conceptual bias” and similarity between hair samples referring to reports written by Larry Dehus and Richard Bisbing, forensic science researchers.

Mark Taylor, director of Technical Associates, Inc, a California-based crime lab, discussed his research and findings on hair microscopy for the defense. Assistant Federal Attorney, Julie Roberts, interviewed Taylor at length about hair microscopy and how DNA concerning hair microscopy presented at trial may no longer be considered scientifically valid.

Testimony on Wednesday came from Lyndsey Sanney, a senior forensic DNA analyst with Bode Technology, and Jennifer Bracamontes, a case work manager for Cyber Genetics.

Bode offers forensic DNA technology along with an array of DNA collection products that serve law enforcement and identification communities worldwide. Cyber Genetics developed probabilistic genotyping software TrueAllele, which is used in 10 crime labs nationally including the one in Cuyahoga County in Ohio.

Sanney indicated that Bode tested several pieces of evidence, including the spike used as the murder weapon. The “offset head” and area below that were tested as those were the areas where the perpetrator likely handled it.

Bracamontes ran the DNA collected from Bode through the TrueAllele software assuming two, three, and four DNA contributors and compared it with Myers’. She said the computer results showed exclusionary match statistics in each case, meaning there was no support for a match with Myers on the areas of the spike tested.

Assistant prosecutor Cheri Stout, in cross-examination of Sanney, questioned how much of the spike was actually tested. Was it the entire component below the head or just the area right below, she questioned. Sanney was unsure, however she did say that if the whole shaft was sampled she would expect that to be noted in the inventory file.

Assistant prosecutor Bill Morrison focused on the data Bracamontes used in her analysis and brought up the adage “garbage in, garbage out,” pointing out that Bracamontes could only test the data given to her. He added that they don’t know where the spike was swabbed so the best Bracamontes could affirm was that where they swabbed excluded Myers.

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