Suffolk County prosecutors have re-indicted Dwayne McNair, a suspect of two rapes, using a new DNA test created by German company Eurofins Scientific, as reported by the Boston Globe.
McNair, 33, of Jamaica Plain and Dedham, was released in April from an eight-count indictment that charged him with raping two young women with accomplice Anwar Thomas in 2004, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Spokesman Jake Wark.
In 2004, Thomas and McNair allegedly grabbed a 23-year-old woman in Forest Hills and forced her into a car. They then allegedly pistol-whipped her and drove to a garage where they repeatedly raped her at gunpoint.
Nine days later, the two men allegedly grabbed a 19-year-old college student in Roxbury, drove her to a wooded area, and raped her.
After a 2011 lab test linked Thomas to the rape, Thomas took a plea deal, admitting guilt in the two rapes. But establishing McNair’s link to the case proved more difficult. McNair has an identical twin, Dwight. Standard DNA tests cannot distinguish between identical twins. Without DNA evidence, Thomas’ testimony was all prosecutors had to indict Dwayne. Dwayne was indicted, but prosecutors didn’t think that was enough to guarantee a conviction. They withdrew the indictment.
That’s not a problem anymore. Wark said the new DNA test can detect genetic differences between identical twins. This is the first time this DNA test will be used in Massachusetts, he said.
Hopeful that the new test results will connect Dwayne to the crimes, prosecutors re-indicted him on Friday.
If convicted of aggravated rape, Dwayne McNair could face life in prison.
The new DNA test could mean monumental changes for rape cases involving identical twins . “This is the second time in the 10 years I’ve been here with identical twins,” Wark said. “In the first case, we had two hung juries before a conviction.”
