Attorneys for two shooting defendants asked DC Superior Court Judge Neal Kravitz on July 17 to reverse the traditional DNA testing process and require prosecutors to wait to test their own evidence.
Donte Bennett, 28, and Demarco Hayes, 23, are both charged with assault with intent to kill while armed, aggravated assault knowingly while armed, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, four counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and carrying a pistol without a license outside a home or place of business. Hayes is also charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and unlawful possession of ammunition.
The charges stem from a July 24, 2024 incident in which prosecutors allege Bennett and Hayes blocked in a man’s car on the 1800 block of Marion Barry Street, SE, and then shot him in the neck.
According to a filing from prosecutors on March 6, the testing they planned to conduct on the firearms recovered in the case might destroy the DNA evidence.
Mani Golzari, Hayes’ attorney, filed a motion on March 13 asking the judge to prevent prosecutors from destroying the evidence. Golzari requested instead for lab workers to split the evidence in half to preserve part of it so that the defense could exercise their right to independently test it under the Innocence Protection Act (IPA). If they could not do that, Golzari requested in his motion that the scientists at the lab record extremely detailed notes on every step of the procedure.
Judge Kravitz denied Golzari’s motion in its entirety in a written order on July 16, ruling that there was no legal basis for the court to force a lab to test DNA evidence in a specific way.
In court, Golzari requested that the defense be allowed to test the DNA on the firearms before the prosecution in order to protect Bennett and Hayes’ IPA rights.
Judge Kravitz noted that this would be highly unusual, since the firearms were the prosecution’s evidence and they would therefore usually have the right to test their own evidence first.
To solve the issue of limited DNA on the guns, Judge Kravitz wanted both parties to agree upon one lab to do testing for both. However, prosecutors indicated that the attorneys assigned to a case do not have any control over which lab performs DNA testing.
Steven Kiersh, Bennett’s attorney, suggested that they use a lab outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but prosecutors indicated that they had a bad relationship with the person who runs that facility. Parties did not reach an agreement on a lab to use for testing.
Judge Kravitz did not make a ruling at the hearing as to the defense’s request to test the evidence before the prosecution.
Parties are set to reconvene to settle the issue on Oct. 16.
