Prosecution Requests DNA Testing in Murder Case

By D.C. Witness Staff - May 23, 2018
Court | Homicides | Suspects |

The prosecution in a murder trial requested the defendant undergo DNA testing. A test was not administered during his arrest.

The defendant, Matthew Moore, is accused of first-degree murder for allegedly shooting Ronnell Reaves. Reaves, 22, was found, by officers from the Metropolitan Police Department, with a bullet wound to the head. Apparently, Reaves was sitting in the driver’s seat of a 2015 Kia Optima on the 600 block of 14th Place, NE. Another person, who was seated in the car’s passenger seat, was also shot. The passenger survived.

Moore, 33, initially claimed that he shot Reaves in self defense after Reaves attempted to coerce him into robbing a restaurant. But, surveillance footage of the incident contradicts Moore’s version of the events that happened between the two that night, the prosecution said.

Moore was arrested in Forestville, Md. on Jan. 26, 2017. He was apparently staying with his sister.

Detectives recovered a semi-automatic handgun and Smith & Wesson cartridges at Moore’s sister’s apartment. The cartridges match the shell casings found at the scene of the murder.

A status hearing is scheduled for June 12.