Testimony begins in trial of man accused of raping and killing two N. Philly women in 1989

Ruby Ellis and Cheryl Hanible were raped and strangled in 1989 in a part of North Philadelphia since obliterated by redevelopment.

But the years did nothing to dim the emotions of their friends and relatives Wednesday as testimony began in the trial of Rudolph Churchill, the South Jersey man whose DNA allegedly linked to their slayings a quarter-century later.

Hanible's sister sobbed and wiped away tears as Assistant District Attorney Gwenn Cujdik projected autopsy photos of the two women, cords tightly wrapped around their necks.

And later, from the witness stand, Hanible's girlfriend at the time of her death, Judy Hall Minhas, exploded in anger at defense attorney Gina Capuano as the lawyer questioned her about her romantic relationship with Hanible.

"You got the murderer sitting right there!" yelled Minhas. "So why are you saying these things to me?"

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi, who had already warned Minhas about prior outbursts, had the jury sent out of the courtroom and then threatened to jail Minhas for contempt of court.

Minhas left the courtroom screaming, followed by Cujdik, but returned about 15 minutes later, apparently chastened, and icily finished her testimony.

Another witness, Lombay Swain, a childhood friend of Ellis', wept as she recalled the last time she saw Ellis, in March 1989. She said she and others were doing drugs in an abandoned house at 25th and Stewart Streets in North Philadelphia that evening when Ellis stopped by with an older man she did not know.

Swain said she still felt guilty for not stopping Ellis from leaving with the stranger, who said he was from Atlanta.

"It was just a feeling," Swain testified. "I seen nothing but darkness and coldness in his eyes."

In court, Swain glared at Churchill but did not identify him. Because of the number of years that have passed, the lawyers are not permitted to ask witnesses for in-court identifications.

In her opening statement, Cujdik called Ellis and Hanible "perfect victims" - poor and selling their bodies to buy drugs to feed addictions.

"They didn't know each other, but they were nearly identical in so many ways," Cujdik told the jury of eight women and four men.

Ellis' and Hanible's lives - and physical appearance - were so similar that investigators considered their deaths "signature crimes," Cujdik said.

"You didn't have to leave your name for us to know it was your work," the prosecutor added, referring to Churchill.

Churchill, 54, of Paulsboro, is charged with first-degree murder, rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, and possession of an instrument of crime: a shoelace used to strangle Hanible, 33, and a length of twine used on Ellis, 19.

Ellis' body was found on March 17, 1989, in an abandoned car in a lot near 15th and Thompson Streets. She was wearing only a jacket, and had been dead for several hours. On April 23, 1989, the body of Hanible was found on the second floor of a burned-out and abandoned bar in the 1200 block of West Girard Avenue.

For the next 25 years, the killings remained unsolved, until Philadelphia police, comparing old DNA samples against specimens in FBI databases under a grant to solve cold cases, learned of a match to Churchill.

Churchill was arrested in 2014, after a DNA sample taken when he served a three-year sentence for burglary in DeKalb County, Ga., matched DNA from the 1989 slayings, prosecutors say.

Capuano said the DNA match to Churchill was tenuous: blood on a paper towel in the abandoned car where Ellis was killed and on the heel of Hanible's shoe, from which her killer removed the shoelace to strangle her.

No DNA matching Churchill was found in or on either victim's body, Capuano said.

"There's no way they even come close to proving this case beyond a reasonable doubt," Capuano told the jury.

jslobodzian@phillynews.com 215-854-2985

@joeslobo www.philly.com/crimeandpunishment