Man Serving 37 Years For Shooting, Homicide Balks At Providing DNA For Another Homicide Case – Hartford Courant

James Raynor, who is serving 37 years in prison for shooting a man and participating in the gang-related murder of another, is now in the cross hairs of cold case investigators working on another Hartford homicide.

Detectives obtained a search warrant to get a sample of Raynor's DNA for their case.

Raynor, 33, was in court Tuesday because he objected to providing a DNA sample.

His lawyer, J. Patten Brown III, told Hartford Superior Court Judge Julia D. Dewey that his client's position was the state had obtained a DNA sample from him in 2014 and that he feared investigators will get his DNA and put it on the evidence they have.

"He thinks they want to smear his DNA on evidence to frame him," Brown said.

Dewey told Brown and Raynor that the search warrant is a lawful court order to Raynor to provide the DNA. She held him in contempt of court for refusing to provide it, and told him that detectives were authorized to use force to obtain the sample.

In Connecticut, investigators may legally use reasonable force to obtain DNA samples from inmates. The law was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2016.

Detectives did obtain a sample before Raynor left the courthouse on Tuesday.

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Man Serving 37 Years For Shooting, Homicide Balks At Providing DNA For Another Homicide Case - Hartford Courant