Man is charged in Vermont slaying

The man who was the last person seen with a University of Vermont student was charged yesterday with sexually assaulting and killing the 21-year-old senior, who died of strangulation and blunt-force trauma, authorities said.

DNA evidence found during the autopsy of Michelle Gardner-Quinn matched samples taken from Brian L. Rooney, 36, a construction worker who is to be arraigned today on a charge of aggravated murder, police said. If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.

Test results police received yesterday indicated DNA from blood found on jeans Rooney wore Oct. 7, the day Gardner-Quinn disappeared, matched semen found on her body.

"The scientific probability of the samples randomly existing in the Caucasian population are approximately 1 in 240 quadrillion," Police Chief Thomas Tremblay said during a press conference yesterday in Burlington.

Police say that Rooney loaned Gardner-Quinn his cellular phone and was spotted on a jewelry store's security camera walking with her on a downtown Burlington street. Rooney was arrested Oct. 13 in connection with an unrelated sexual assault; those allegations emerged while police investigated his involvement in the Gardner-Quinn case.