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Guilty Verdict In Cold Case Murder Of Two Women In North Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Even to the end, before sheriff's deputies led him away, a South Jersey man denied raping and murdering two women in North Philadelphia in 1989, but a jury saw it otherwise. The judge sentenced the defendant to two consecutive life prison terms on Monday, with no chance of parole.

Jurors found 54-year old Rudolph Churchill guilty on two counts of first degree murder. Jurors acquitted Churchill on the rape charges, perhaps because his DNA was found near, but not on their bodies. The jury had absorbed seven days of testimony from opposing DNA experts who reached different conclusions on whether evidence included or excluded the defendant.

Prosecutors contended Churchill's DNA was on a paper towel found near 19-year-old Ruby Ellis' body and on 33-year-old victim Cheryl Hanible's sneaker.

"He just left my sister there to rot," said the victim's brother, John Hanible.

Hanible told Churchill he did not "hate" the defendant, and he just "prayed for justice."

"I think it would have been a lot better if he had just did what he did, and just called police and said that there was a body there," Hanible said.

Her sister, Louise Hanible says their mother went to her grave in grief.

"We forgive," she said, "but we will never forget what he did."

The case went cold for 25 years, but in 2013, Philadelphia police were able to mine old DNA samples and compare them with biological fluids, getting a hit, a match for Churchill in an FBI database.

Churchill told the judge "through years of addiction, burglaries and other shortcomings, I did not hurt anyone - I did not kill those women."

Judge Rose Marie DeFino-Nastasi called it a "dehumanizing" crime, and she sentenced Churchill to two consecutive life prison terms.

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