DNA expert to return to stand Friday in Faith Hedgepeth murder trial

Court is in recess unti 2 p.m. The livestream will resume when court is back in session.

Testimony resumes Friday morning in the murder trial of the man accused of killing UNC student Faith Hedgepeth in 2012.

A DNA expert is expected to return to the stand Friday after jurors spent the entire day Thursday hearing about DNA evidence collected from Hedgepeth’s body and items from the crime scene.

NC Crime Lab Forensic Scientist Erin Ermish is expected to face more questions from prosecutors after defense attorneys questioned her Thursday about DNA testing in the case.

Ermish testified Thursday that DNA from swabs of Hedgepeth’s body was 170 septillion times more likely to be a mixture of DNA from Hedgepeth and defendant Miguel Salguero-Olivares than from Hedgepeth and an unknown, unrelated person.

Jurors also heard testimony about DNA found on the Bacardi rum bottle prosecutors say was used to kill Hedgepeth.

Court is expected to resume Friday morning. WRAL News will stream the trial live on WRAL.com and on YouTube.