The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to hear an appeal by a former truck driver convicted of murdering a teen girl and dumping her body in Centre County three decades ago, according to District Attorney Bernie Cantorna’s office.
James R. Cruz, Jr., 65, had asked the commonwealth’s highest court to review an April 2022 decision by the Superior Court that rejected his request for a new trial based on questions about hair evidence.
Cruz was convicted in June 1994 and sentenced to life in prison for the killing of Dawn Marie Birnbaum, a 17-year-old whose body was discovered by a passing motorist in March 1993. Birnbaum was found on roadside snowbank near Interstate 80 in Spring Township with her wrists bound and a piece of rope fastened around her neck that was used to strangle her.
Prosecutors said Cruz picked Birnbaum up at a truck stop after she ran away from a Maine boarding school.
Evidence including fuel receipts from truck stops in Maine and Pennsylvania, tire tracks and DNA pointed to Cruz, a cross-country trucker who was arrested in Ohio. Then-Centre County DA Ray Gricar, who prosecuted the case, also presented testimony from an FBI analyst who concluded a hair found underneath the ligature around Birnbaum matched Cruz’s and that a hair found in Cruz’s truck matched Birnbaum’s.
Cruz maintained his innocence and claimed to have never met Birnbaum, though DNA tests showed he had sex with her.
He filed a motion for a new trial in September 2015 after the FBI disclosed in a press release there had been widespread errors in the conclusions of the bureau’s microscopic hair comparison analysts prior to 2000.
A Post-Conviction Relief Act proceeding overseen by Centre County Judge Jonathan Grine denied Cruz’s petition in 2021. In 2022, a Superior Court judge rejected Cruz’s appeal, writing that Cruz did not present any genuine issues of material fact necessitating an evidentiary hearing,” and that Grine’s decision “outlines the substantial evidence presented at trial that it was Appellant who committed the crimes and then properly concludes that the after-discovered evidence would not likely result in a different verdict.”
According to the ruling, the FBI hair analysis testimony was “but one piece of evidence in the context of a seven day trial” where more than 50 witnesses testified; “there was ample evidence,” against Cruz, including the presence of his DNA on Birnbaum’s body and clothes; and the FBI agent’s testimony was thoroughly mitigated by cross-examination.”
Cruz is serving his life sentence at Fayette state prison.
“The District Attorney’s Office is grateful to the dedicated professionals, past and present, responsible for holding Cruz accountable for the 1993 murder,” Cantorna’s office wrote in a release. “The closure of this case represents an important success in the history of the District Attorney’s Office.”
