A preliminary hearing for Travis J. Hoffmeister, 23, of Hollister, took place today at the San Benito County Courthouse with Superior Court Judge Harry Tobias presiding. Hoffmeister is suspected of killing Christella Macias, who was covered by only a sweatshirt and a bag over her head when found last June on C Street early in the morning.
"The cops got up and testified about reports they took, and then we moved on to some of the DNA matters," said Hoffmeister's attorney, public defender Greg LaForge, who appeared with the suspect in court Monday.
Megan Mannion-Gray, a senior criminologist with the California Department of Justice whose specialty lies in DNA, testified about three pieces of evidence. First was the bag found over Macias' head that contained unspecified DNA evidence consistent with Hoffmeister's DNA, she argued.
"The match would be estimated to occur in one of 210 quadrillion to 207 quintillion subjects," said Mannion-Gray.
A swab of the victim's neck and chest area revealed DNA evidence that matched Hoffmeister and was estimated by the criminologist to occur in "one out of four to 12 million people," while blood found on a rug in Hoffmeister's apartment matched the victim's DNA in a way that Mannion-Gray contended would occur in one individual out of "63 quintillion to 3.7 sextillion" individuals.
The preliminary trial came to a halt when Laforge pointed out that he had not received extensive notes on DNA testing. The matter was continued to Dec. 15.
Jeff Gatlin Jeff Gatlin is a staff writer at The Hollister Free Lance. You can call him at (831) 637-5566 or send him an email.
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