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Defense makes case; Hinsdale murder trial deliberations to start Friday

Closing arguments will start Friday morning in the murder trial of Dominic Sanders, a Chicago man accused of killing a Hinsdale woman in her home in May 2017.

The defense presented its case Thursday morning, with testimony about hairs found in victim Andrea Urban's hands and on her living-room floor.

The hairs were analyzed at the Illinois State Police's Chicago laboratory. Examiner Jamie Jett testified he was able to determine the ones in Urban's hands were human, from the head, light brown and from a Caucasian.

He could not say whether the hair belonged to Urban, however, because the laboratory does not do such comparison tests, he said.

Urban was white and had long, light-colored hair; in photos, it appears blonde. Sanders is black and had short, dark hair.

No DNA tests of the hair were requested, Jett testified.

The defense also presented information to the jury, which the prosecution agreed with, concerning examination of fingerprints collected at Urban's home.

A private fingerprint examiner received 36 possible prints. Of those, 15 were suitable for comparing to known fingerprints. None of those 15 matched Sanders' fingerprints, 10 matched those of either Urban or her son, and one matched a police detective's.

Sanders, now 33, is accused of killing Urban by beating her and slashing her throat. Her son found her body in the kitchen of their home when he returned home from high school.

Authorities have alleged Sanders stole and pawned two rings Urban owned, which were distinctive family heirlooms, and showed the jury photos of an open dresser cabinet containing an empty jewelry box that possibly had a blood stain on it.

A forensic-evidence examiner testified that DNA from blood drops found on one of Sanders' shoes were a high match to Urban's DNA.

Sanders admitted to stealing the rings but says they were on a ledge just inside the home and he merely leaned in an open door to take them. He denied, in a videotape of a police interrogation, ever walking into the house or killing Urban.

Jury deliberations are expected to begin Friday.

Andrea Urban
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