DA cites DNA, defense questions it as jury deliberates in 1988 murder of Erie's Helen Vogt

Precisely 36 years after 77-year-old Helen Vogt was found stabbed and beaten to death in her Erie townhouse, a jury started deliberating on whether her grandson murdered her.

The case went to the panel shortly after 4:35 p.m. Tuesday, and the jurors deliberated about 40 minutes before breaking for the evening. They were scheduled to resume deliberations at the Erie County Courthouse at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

The jury started deliberating after hearing five days of testimony and argument in one what had been one of Erie's oldest cold cases until Vogt's grandson, Jeremy C. Brock, 57, a resident of Texas, was charged in her death two years ago . He is accused of first- and second-degree murder, robbery and other charges.

Advances in DNA technology led the Erie police to arrest Brock three decades after Vogt's bloodied body was discovered in the bedroom of her townhouse in the 2800 block of Zimmerman Road in southeast Erie the morning of July 23, 1988.

The townhouse showed no signs of forced entry, leading police to believe that Vogt knew her assailant and let that person in. Vogt was stabbed 51 times with what police said was a knife and a two-pronged barbecue fork.

The prosecution's main evidence is Brock's DNA, including DNA that police said was found on a bloody washcloth in Vogt's bathtub . Erie County District Attorney Elizabeth Hirz, who is leading the prosecution, said Brock left blood on the washcloth as he cleaned himself after he killed Vogt.

Police said DNA analysis also showed Brock's DNA on the sink in Vogt's kitchen.

"DNA doesn't take sides," Hirz said in her closing argument on Tuesday in the courtroom of Judge Daniel Brabender. "It doesn't have a bias. It can't be challenged. There can be no holes punched in it."

Defense questions DNA, says 'nothing makes sense'

Brock did not testify, and the defense presented no witnesses.

Brock still spoke to the jurors.

He addressed them via a interview he gave with WJET-TV in Erie in the months after he was arrested. The prosecution played the interview in court, and heard Brock say he was never at his maternal grandmother's townhouse in July 1988 despite his DNA being found there. Brock, who was 21 when Vogt was killed, said he was in California at the time.

Brock's lead court-appointed lawyer, Jason Nard, of Pittsburgh, argued that the prosecution presented no other evidence that Brock was in Erie. Nard questioned whether contamination resulted in the police finding Brock's DNA on the washcloth.

Nard emphasized that investigators found none of Brock's fingerprints at the townhouse and that investigators presented no evidence about how Brock got to Erie.

Nard called the DNA evidence a "red herring" in his closing argument. He told the jurors the prosecution lacked supporting evidence.

"If that is all you are hanging on to, nothing else makes sense," Nard said of the DNA.

Hirz said the defense's claims made up "a completely desperate theory."

DA gives no motive, says DNA clinches case

Brock's fingerprints were also not found Vogt's car, a new Buick LeSabre that was seen speeding out of Vogt's garage the morning of July 23, 1988. Witnesses said the driver was wearing a towel around his or her head. The car was wiped clean of fingerprints when police in August 1988 recovered it after it had been left in a parking garage near a Greyhound bus station in Dayton, Ohio.

Brock wiped clean the car and Vogt's townhouse or wore gloves, Hirz told the jury. She argued his efforts ultimately proved unsuccessful when the DNA technology caught up to the case.

"Jeremy wiped everything down," Hirz said. "He cleaned up everything as best he could. He didn't realize what was coming.

"He didn't know what was coming with the technology."

Police early in the investigation surmised that Brock was angry at his grandmother because he wanted a larger allowance than what she had been sending him, according to court records. Hirz at trial offered no motive for the killing, and highlighted that she did not have to provide a motive under the law.

Hirz said the DNA and other evidence was enough to convict Brock. She said Vogt let her grandson into her townhouse sometime on July 22, 1988, and then he stabbed, beat and robbed her.

Hirz returned to the DNA evidence.

"It doesn't matter why, because we know he did it," she told the jury. "It doesn't matter how he got here, because he was here."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella .

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: DA cites DNA, defense questions it as jury deliberates in 1988 murder of Erie's Helen Vogt