The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

November 18, 2009

Investigators try to link DNA to St. Peter man

By Dan Nienaber

MANKATO — Drug investigators are using DNA evidence in an attempt to link a 25-year-old St. Peter man to a pistol found with a cache of suspected cocaine and handguns two years ago.

The man being investigated has not been arrested or charged. However, the person who was with the guns and drugs when they were found, 30-year-old Marcus Devon Smith, was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison in May.

Smith was arrested Nov. 4, 2007, after Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force investigators searched his residence in the Eastport apartment complex off Pohl Road. Several bags containing 12 ounces of suspected cocaine and three handguns were found during the search, court records said.

Felony drug and weapons charges that were filed in Blue Earth County were dismissed after Smith was charged in federal court with a single charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The DNA found on one of the three guns did not match the DNA of Smith. That sample was compared to databases of DNA collected from convicted offenders.

It was that search that led authorities to the St. Peter man.

On July 9 an agent from the task force and an agent from the federal Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agency met the man at his house and gave him a copy of the results, according to a search warrant request made by the investigators. They also asked him for a new DNA sample so they could make a new comparison.

The man denied their request, saying he would have to speak to his attorney first. He also told the investigators he couldn’t have touched the gun that was found because he is a convicted felon, the application said.

Several more attempts were made by the local investigator to obtain a new DNA sample. The search warrant application was filed Oct. 22 and used to obtain two samples, taken with mouth swabs, a week later.

Smith’s arrest caught some by surprise because he had been a popular youth baseball coach. He was already a convicted felon when he was given the coaching job, which led to an addition of more extensive background checks for Mankato youth baseball coaches now.

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