DNA yields charges against man in 2007 Montco slaying

A 37-year-old man has been arrested in connection with a slaying in Pottstown three years ago after his DNA profile was matched to evidence found near the crime scene, Montgomery County officials announced yesterday.

Joseph Eli Moss is accused of fatally stabbing Edward Sides on Feb. 7, 2007. Police found Sides, 59, with stab wounds in his neck and torso in the back yard of his home on King Street near York about 8:20 that night.

He was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later.

Detectives investigating the stabbing found a tan Timberland jacket hidden behind a trash can about 100 yards from Sides' home.

Blood on the jacket was found to be that of Sides. Samples were also taken from inside the jacket and were uploaded into a state DNA database but no match was found then. In late February 2007, Moss was arrested on unrelated theft charges.

He ended up in the state prison system, where officials obtained his DNA profile and entered it into the state database, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said yesterday.

In August, State Police looking into the Pottstown crime noticed that Moss' DNA was a possible match to the crime-scene evidence.

On Sept. 1, Moss was interviewed by county and Pottstown authorities and shown a photo of the tan jacket.

He told authorities, "That's my jacket," according to the affidavit of probable cause in his case. A DNA sample was also taken from Moss that day.

Moss told authorities that he was living in Pottstown in February 2007 and that he knew Sides.

He said that he had previously been inside Sides' house to use crack cocaine, according to the affidavit. Moss told detectives that he learned of Sides' slaying the day after it happened.

Ferman said yesterday that her office received confirmation just before Christmas from the state police lab that Moss' DNA matched the specimens taken from the jacket.

Moss faces a preliminary hearing Friday on murder charges.