State, defense rest in ‘peace walker' hit-and-run trial in Manatee County

Yahoo

06-03-2025

MANATEE COUNTY (WFLA) — Both the state and defense rested their cases in the Teresa Zeppi trial Wednesday.
The 60-year-old Manatee County woman is accused of leaving the scene of a crash involving death back in 2020. The victim was Joseph Dralus Sr. The 82-year-old, who neighbors call the 'peace walker' was on one of his daily five-mile walks when he was struck.
The prosecution focused heavily on the DNA evidence located on Zeppi's Lincoln Navigator Wednesday. Their final witness was a crime laboratory analyst with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The analyst said she was given five swabs taken from the vehicle. One of the swabs from the hood/fender, she said, matched the DNA profile of Dralus Sr.
'For this item, the DNA results I obtained was a complete DNA profile that was consistent with a male individual, so it was a single-source profile obtained from the hood and fender area. I then compared the profile from Joseph Dralus to this profile and the profiles matched, meaning that, at every one of those 21 locations, the DNA types were the same as the DNA types from Joseph Dralus,' said Kaleigh Brownell with FDLE. 'So the observed DNA profile in this case is greater than 700 billion times more likely to have occurred if it originated from Joseph Dralus then if it originated from an unrelated individual,' she explained to the jury.
During cross examination, the defense questioned the analyst about how and when the DNA could have ended up on the vehicle. I cannot determine, again, the source or how DNA was deposited. I can say there was a good amount of DNA in my quantitation for at least that item one, the hood fender,' said Brownell.
The DNA samples from Dralus were provided by his son, Christopher, after his death. He obtained two of his father's toothbrushes as well as a hairbrush from his father's vehicle. All were provided to FHP and FDLE.
Once the state rested its case, the defense brought up only two witnesses. Zeppi did not take the stand.
The defense's first witness was hired by Zeppi in 2023 to serve as an expert opinion. The accident reconstruction expert went through a series of photos with the jury, suggesting the damage to Zeppi's SUV was from a minor crash she was in earlier that day, before Dralus Sr. was struck.
'Given the nature of the injuries that Mr. Dralus had, in my opinion, there is absolutely no way the vehicle that the struck him would have no damage,' said accident reconstruction expert Sean O'Leary.
Zeppi's 21-year-old daughter was the final witness to take the stand. She spoke to her mother's character and testified that her mother was home around 4 p.m. the day of the deadly crash. It is believed to have happened around 5 p.m.
'I got home around 2:45 and my mom was not at the house. I left and went on a little bike ride until a little bit after four when I came back home and she was there. We hung out around the house, until I went upstairs into my room for the rest of the evening until later at night until I was called downstairs for dinner,' said the 21-year-old.
She told the jury her mom was not acting unusual in any way and said she did not say anything about a car crash.
During cross examination, the state pointed out Zeppi did not tell her daughter about her minor crash earlier in the day either.
Closing arguments are set to begin Thursday morning.
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