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Man indicted in 1971 beating death
Improvements in fingerprint, database technology allow crime lab to identify suspect in Harrison Twp. case
Thursday, September 20, 2007
DAYTON — A Montgomery County grand jury has indicted a Wisconsin man in one of the county's oldest unsolved homicides.
Robert J. Sosnoskie, now 62, was charged with second -degree murder in the 1971 slaying of 76-year-old Perry Smith.
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County Prosecutor Mathias Heck Jr.'s office said the indictment was returned Friday. However, his office announced the decision Wednesday.
No explanation was given for the delay in making the indictment public.
Sosnoskie is accused of beating Smith in his home on Sinclair Avenue in Harrison Twp. during an apparent robbery attempt on June 18, 1971. Sinclair Avenue no longer exists.
As fingerprint and database technology has improved since the slaying, the Miami Valley Regional Crime Lab was able to use fingerprints left at the scene to identify Sosnoskie as a suspect.
A Dayton Daily News story from 1971 said Smith died of heart failure as a result of being beaten in his ransacked home.
The crime lab updated its fingerprint database system to match the updated state and federal databases in 2000.
"When a person commits a serious crime, especially a homicide, it is important that we utilize the latest advances in science and investigative techniques in order to identify a suspect," Heck said in his press release Wednesday.
"As this case demonstrates, even 36 years after a criminal act, a perpetrator can be identified and held accountable for his actions."
Sosnoskie has a lengthy criminal record, including multiple convictions in Florida and Indiana on charges of assault with intent to commit rape as well as attempted rape, according to Heck's office.
He was extradited in May from Wisconsin, where he was living. He is in the Montgomery County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail, according to Heck's office.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2263 or
rfox@DaytonDailyNews.com.
