Suspect in 1996 murder of Debbie Dorian in Fresno appears in court
Nickey Stane's preliminary hearing will resume with witness testimony on Tuesday morning and could last about two weeks.
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Nickey Stane appeared content and well-kept in court on Monday.
But behind the 56-year-old's red prison jumpsuit, black glasses, and goatee, prosecutors say is a murderer.
His appearance in court comes 27 years after Debbie Dorian died in her Northeast Fresno apartment.
"She missed a lot of important things in life. She missed her graduation. She missed her occupation. She missed her wedding. She missed Christmases. She missed everything from that day on," said Sara Loven, Dorian's mother.
The 22-year-old was a recent Fresno State graduate interested in audiology. Her father found her bound and gagged -- and investigators say they have DNA connecting Stane to the scene.
Three years after Dorian's death, a string of eight sexual assaults in Visalia rocked Tulare County. Investigators matched DNA from one of the assaults to a sample collected from Dorian's apartment years earlier.
The search for a suspect went cold until a breakthrough led law enforcement to Stane in the fall of 2019.
"The prosecution's going to have to show how they found the DNA at each one of these scenes and how they tie the DNA from these scenes to this defendant. What's that jump? What's that leap?" explained ABC30 Legal Analyst Tony Capozzi.
Stane faces a slew of eleven felonies: murder, rape, sodomy, kidnapping.
He's pleaded not guilty to all of them.
On Monday, Deputy District Attorney Deborah Miller told the judge prosecutors plan on calling at least two sexual assault victims and several others to testify.
The government must prove they have enough evidence to go forward with the case.
"At the preliminary hearing, all the government has to prove by a preponderance of evidence - is just tip the scale a little bit, that's enough. But to go to trial and find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, they have to tip the scale all the way up," said Capozzi.
Stane's preliminary hearing will resume with witness testimony on Tuesday morning and could last about two weeks.
If the judge rules there's enough evidence to proceed, the DA's office could choose to pursue the death penalty, something the prosecutor on Monday said was likely to happen.
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