DNA evidence leads to charges in 2015 burglary case
State police have filed charges against a Greensburg man after they say DNA evidence linked him to a 2015 burglary in Bentleyville.
Dylan Tristin Axton, 22, of 911 Aberdeen Dr., Greensburg, is accused of stealing more than $5,000 worth of electronics and clothing from an apartment in the 500 block of Main Street in Bentleyville in December 2015.
According to the criminal complaint, the woman who lives at the apartment returned home about 1:30 a.m. Dec. 11 to find the door to her apartment was open, and the front window broken.
“She noticed her back bedroom and another room had been ransacked and several items were missing,” the complaint states.
Among the missing items were a 40-inch television, a 50-inch television, a PlayStation 4, Balenciaga boots and two Fendi belts.
The victim also discovered a black backpack containing a toothbrush that did not belong to her, according to the complaint.
State police sent the toothbrush to their Greensburg laboratory for DNA analysis a week later. Police said they matched the DNA to Axton on Jan. 23, 2018, through the federal DNA database, and they obtained a sample from Axton on May 9, 2018.
The state police lab in Greensburg confirmed the more recent sample from Axton was a match to the DNA discovered on the toothbrush, police said.
Axton was arraigned before District Judge Curtis Thompson on felony burglary and theft charges Thursday morning. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. April 10 before Thompson.