LeCroy said DNA would save him

GAINESVILLE - The father of federal defendant William LeCroy Junior said his son told him DNA evidence would prove him innocent of slaying a Gilmer County woman in Day Three of his trial in Gainesville.

William Emmett LeCroy Senior recalled a conversation with his son in the Cobb County Jail after his arrest for fleeing a murder scene to the Canadian border in a stolen vehicle.

LeCroy said his son told him DNA evidence would show two other men committed the crime.

LeCroy asked his son why he was in murder victim Joann Tiesler's Ford Explorer.

The defendant did not answer.

JURY VIEWS AUTOPSY

Former G.B.I. medical examiner Varie Revell, an expert witness, testified that while murder victim Joann Tiesler suffered several wounds in her assault and was raped, it was the deep cut in her neck that severed all vital arteries that caused her death.

Revell told the jury Tiesler lost all her blood within three to four minutes after her throat was slashed.

Defense attorney Brian Middleson said Revell was a "sloppy, shoddy practitioner", saying she continued practicing after her state license lapsed because of confusion over renewal dates.

He said the G.B.I. investigated Revell for conducting 230 autopsies with a lapsed license.

Middleson said a lapsed license was a revoked license but Revell replied her license was reinstated without penalty.

Middleson also accused Revell of leaving the G.B.I. "holding the bag" with 120 incomplete autopsies when she left for Oklahoma.