A riverboat captain will be formally arraigned Jan. 30 after a Cochise County judge found probable cause exists to charge the man with two sexual assault felonies related to a 2021 incident in Sierra Vista that resulted in a DNA match to a Tennessee rape case.
Christopher M. Dunn had his initial court appearance Jan. 5 following a preliminary hearing which featured DNA evidence tying Dunn to the Sierra Vista case as well as a similar rape accusation in 2018 in Tennessee where Dunn lives. It will be up to a Cochise County jury to determine later this year if proof beyond reasonable doubt exists to convict Dunn.
Dunn, 51, was accused by his then-girlfriend on May 1, 2021 of raping her the day before as Dunn was moving out of the home the two shared for a short time in Sierra Vista. The DNA profile of evidence collected during a sexual assault examination resulted in a “hit” or match to a DNA profile already in a national law enforcement database since 2018.
But Sierra Vista Det. Joshua Nicola did not end his investigation with the state crime lab’s matching report. He testified at last week’s preliminary hearing about arranging for Dunn to voluntarily provide saliva for a direct DNA comparison to the physical evidence collected in the Sierra Vista case.
Nicola testified that the state crime lab reported the second “hit” or match to Dunn, even though Dunn insisted he had no sexual contact with his girlfriend for 30 days prior to her police report.
Court records show officers initially responded to the couple’s home April 30 after the woman called to report a domestic disturbance. She wanted Dunn removed from the property but denied any abuse or threats.
The next day she went to the police station to file a revised complaint alleging she had been raped by Dunn in an upstairs bedroom before she had called police to get Dunn out of the house.
Nicola was officially assigned the case in mid-May 2021. He testified at the preliminary hearing about the fact a profile of Dunn’s DNA was on file in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which enables federal, state, and local forensic laboratories to exchange and compare DNA profiles electronically.
According to Nicola, the 2018 profile was from a sexual assault investigation in Tennessee in which Dunn was accused by his then-estranged wife of rape. That case was never prosecuted due to a lack of victim participation.
Defense counsel David Garcia did not call any defense witnesses at the preliminary hearing, but he did try to get Nicola to testify to the fact Dunn volunteered for a polygraph that determined Dunn was truthful in denying any sexual contact with the woman as she alleged.
Prosecutor Michael Powell objected to the questioning and argued polygraph results are not admissible in Arizona at trial or to a grand jury considering whether to issue an indictment. Judge Timothy Dickerson sustained the objection, but allowed the defense attorney to make an avowal that a polygraph was conducted.
The judge noted he would not consider the information but was allowing it on the record to avoid providing grounds for an appeal.
There was also testimony from Nicola that the relationship between Dunn and the girlfriend was “already rocky” in April 2021 when Dunn announced he was bringing his mother to Arizona. The girlfriend said she believed it was for a visit, but when Dunn and the mother were at the airport it was revealed he was in town to move out.
Dunn’s mother was in the house at the time the girlfriend said the rape occurred. The mother told officers she heard no commotion or loud voices from upstairs. Nicola later made various attempts to contact Dunn’s mother for a follow-up interview but she did not respond to him.
Garcia also solicited testimony from Nicola of arrangements for the girlfriend to contact Dunn by phone in what was described as a confrontation call. The detective listened in as the call took place but reported he heard nothing from Dunn considered incriminating.
The defense also questioned Nicola about the woman’s admission that she accessed Dunn’s cellphone after the alleged attack in order to send messages to herself.
But Garcia never addressed Dunn’s denials of sexual conduct nor the DNA results.
Dickerson found probable cause existed to move forward with the charges at the completion of the preliminary hearing. He then ordered Dunn be released on his own recognizance pending trial and granted permission for Dunn to attend most pretrial court proceedings via Zoom.
Dunn was advised by Dickerson of the effect on the case if the defendant fails to attend a hearing. If that happens, Dunn could be put on trial in absentia, the judge explained.