A jury heard a daughter's anguish Tuesday as she described finding her mother's body in their Chester County home.
In August of 2005, 57-year-old Judy Hinson was found dead at her Debruhl Road home. Her two daughters, then 25 and 15, came home around 1 a.m. They knew Ginson would be angry because they stayed out past curfew.
Danielle Brodeur, now 31, testified that she and her sister, Amanda Hinson, entered the house quietly, trying not to wake their mother.
When they noticed one of the dogs kept barking at their mother's bedroom door, Brodeur went to check.
"I called out for my mom, and I didn't hear anything," she said on the stand.
She turned on the light and saw her mother's body.
"She was naked from the waist down, and there was a pool of blood," Brodeur said.
After calling 911, Brodeur noticed a window near her mother's bedroom was open with the blinds and curtains hanging out.
"That's when I knew someone had killed my mother," she said through tears.
Chester County sheriff's deputies found a cigarette lighter and a knife outside that open window, as well as a bloody handprint on the wall. They also found blood in the bathroom sink and a trail across the floor.
On Tuesday, a pathologist described in detail how he believes Hinson was killed. Those details are too disturbing to report. He concluded she bled to death after suffering a severed aorta.
A day after the murder, deputies charged 37-year-old Casey Perkins with murder in Hinson's death. He was a registered sex offender who lived with his parents on the same street, a few doors down from Hinson and her daughters. Brodeur testified that she didn't know Perkins.
The defense raised questions about Hinson's health and the many medications she was taking at the time of her death, including drugs for depression and high blood pressure. They raised the possibility that Hinson could've died from an aneurism caused by high blood pressure or medication, and thus her death was not a homicide.
Perkins' lawyers also made the point that there is no forensic evidence putting him at the crime scene.
However, within hours after Hinson's death, police dogs ran a trail from the house to a nearby camper. A neighbor testified earlier that Perkins had been at that camper visiting him on the night of the murder.
Perkins' attorney asked Hinson's two daughters if they received any insurance money after their mother's death. Both of them replied, "no."
The younger daughter, Amanda, was also asked if she had told anyone at school that she was glad her mother was gone. She denied ever saying anything like that.
"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte
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