A Coatesville man who spent 12 years in jail for murder just had his sentence overturned
Marquis Rayner was convicted of second-degree murder in the 2012 death of Dominique Williams on "pure speculation," a federal judge ruled as he set aside the guilty verdict.
A Coatesville man was released from state prison Friday after a federal judge overturned his life sentence for murder, saying he had been convicted on “pure speculation.”
Marquis Rayner, 32, has long maintained his innocence in the killing of 20-year-old Dominique Williams, who was fatally shot during a botched home-invasion robbery in June 2012. Rayner insisted that police had arrested the wrong man. At the time of the killing, he said, he was drinking at a nearby bar, an alibi that was supported by four witnesses during his trial in West Chester.
A grand jury had recommended second-degree murder charges for Rayner, who was charged in 2013 with two other men: his half-brother Dominique Lee, with whom he lived, and Camron Horne.
Rayner’s attorney, Samuel Stretton, said Friday he believed so strongly in Rayner’s innocence that he represented him for free during the yearslong appeal process.
“I knew the man was innocent, and it was a great burden to me the last 10 years trying to overturn the verdict,” said Stretton, who also represented Rayner during his trial in 2013.
On the day of the shooting, Williams was playing a video game inside his home on Merchant Street when three men entered with their heads wrapped in T-shirts, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Rayner’s arrest.
“Where’s it at?” one man yelled, and shot Williams, the affidavit said. A second assailant struck another man in the house with his gun, the document said, and the three men left with a jar of marijuana.
Officers found the jar and one of the T-shirts near the house and linked Rayner to DNA found on the garment. Horne was connected to the crime when he later told a witness about his involvement with the slaying, police said. He said the three had planned to rob the house, but one of the men then shot Williams, investigators said. Lee’s fingerprint was found on the stolen jar, according to police.
Rayner and Lee were convicted of second-degree murder, conspiracy, and related offenses after a jury trial in 2013, and Rayner was sentenced to life in prison. Horne was acquitted of all charges.
Rayner appealed the conviction, but it was upheld by the Superior Court and later the state Supreme Court, according to Stretton.
Stretton challenged that outcome with an appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, saying “there was no evidence to support [Rayner’s] conviction other than speculation.”
In a five-page opinion handed down Wednesday, Senior Judge Theodore McKee agreed. McKee wrote that the T-shirt discovered near the crime scene contained DNA from multiple people, and said there was no way to determine when Rayner had worn the T-shirt last.
A guilty verdict in a murder case, McKee wrote, “cannot rest upon pure speculation.” Without other “sufficient additional incriminating evidence” linking Rayner to the crime, he said, “no rational juror could have found him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
McKee ordered Rayner released from the State Correctional Institute at Dallas, and Stretton said Rayner was on his way back to Coatesville on Friday afternoon.
The veteran defense attorney said he looked forward to sharing a meal with Rayner next week to discuss his plans as a free man.
“This is just a great feeling to know we were able to right a wrong,” Stretton said. “He was truly innocent. He spent 12 years in jail, and now he is starting his life anew.”